Over 100,000 Quebecers likely without power until Monday amid carbon monoxide concerns

The latest:

• As of 7:45p.m.ET Saturday, more than 130,000 Hydro-Qubeccustomers were still without power.
• Hydro-Qubec says most households will have power back within 24 hours, but more than 100,000 will have to wait until Monday.
• The Quebec government is allowing big box grocery stores in certain regions to be open Easter Sunday.
• More than 900,000 customers have regained powerfrom the peak of 1.1 million on Thursday.
• 2 people have died, oneafter being hit by a falling branch, the other after using a generator in a garage.
• 135 people in Montreal have beentreated forcarbon monoxide poisoning.
• The City of Montreal is starting to issue parking tickets on residential streets again.
• If the power or data on your device is low, get your storm updates onCBC Lite. It's our low-bandwidth, text-only website.
• To keep an eye on the outages,click here.

Hydro-Qubec crews have beenworking throughout the long weekend to restore power to more than 130,000 customers the majority in Montreal still without power following Wednesday's ice storm.

The lights went off for more than amillion people andthe storm has been linked to two deaths.

More than 900,000 customers have had their power restored, from the peak of 1.1 million on Thursday morning.

At a news conference Saturday, Hydro-Qubec said it is hoping most households will regain power by the end of the weekend, but couldn'tgive a precise timeline. Some may stay without power until Monday as about 1,500 workers are on the ground working to restore power lines.

Maxime Nadeau, the director of energy system control atHydro-Qubec, said Montreal is now the top priority and teams have come in from other regions to lend a hand. Private contractors were also hired.

"We want to make sure we can restore things as quickly as possible," he said.

"The bulk part of our distribution system has been restored, so now we are doing some work on outages with a smaller amount of customers attached to them. When we restore an outage, fewer customers regain power, so the rhythm of restoration will be slower."

WATCH | Bury power lines to minimize future outages, expert says:

Hydro-Qubec needs to bury power lines to minimize future outages, expert says

1 year ago

Duration 3:17

Normand Mousseau is the scientific director of the Trottier Energy Institute at Polytechnique Montral.

He said some power lines are more damaged than others and may take longer to repair,meaning some people will have to stay in the dark throughout the Easter weekend. Most outages were caused by felled trees, he said.

"We hope to have restored a million customers by tomorrow, which would leave 100,000 to 150,000 customers without electricity," he said.

In Montreal, more than 87,000 customers were stillwithout power Saturday. Thousands of customers in the Lanaudire, Laval, Laurentians, Montrgie and Outaouais regions are alsostill waiting for power.

Intermittent power outages

Nadeau said the outages shouldn't last longer than a few more days. It's also possible for some households to regain power and lose it again temporarily.

Pierre Fitzgibbon, minister of economy, innovation and energy, said that on the bright side, the outages were not caused byHydro-Qubecequipment failures.

"The situation we were in could happen again;we must solidify what we have right now," he said.

He also called on Quebecers to be careful with using gas-powered appliances indoors after one man died fromcarbon monoxide poisoning.

"We have to be careful. One death is one death too much," he said.

A Montreal public health officialsaid Saturday that135 people in the city have beentreated forcarbon monoxide poisoning since Wednesday.

"Just to put that in perspective, in a normal year, we get a couple of dozen. In a whole year. So this is way, way out of proportion," said Dr. David Kaiser, deputy medical director at Montreal public health.

He said the cases are primarily related to people using barbecues or camping stoves indoors to do heating or cooking,as well asgenerators beingtoo close to homes or near air inlets.

WATCH| Montreal health official raises concerns about carbon monoxide:

More than 130 people treated for carbon monoxide poisoning in Montreal after storm

1 year ago

Duration 4:42

Dr. David Kaiser, the deputy medical director at Montreal Public Health, says the varied symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning can make it difficult to detect, but urged people in Montreal who are checking on loved ones in hard-hit areas to watch for symptoms like headaches, nausea, fatigue and in serious cases, losing consciousness.

"Carbon monoxide is a gas:it doesn't smell, it doesn't taste, you can't see it," Kaiser said. "It's produced whenever something's burned."

He said the varied symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning can make it difficult to detect, but urged people in Montreal who are checking in on loved ones in hard-hit areas to watch for headaches, nausea, fatigue and, in serious cases, loss ofconsciousness.

Montreal's public security workers have also been going door to door in areas still without power and making more carbon monoxide-related calls to ensure everyone is safe.

A 75-year-old man died inSaint-Joseph-du-Lac, Que., Friday after using a generator in his garage. TheDeux-Montagnes police service said the level of carbon monoxide in the air was higher than normal.

It's the second death linked to the storm in Quebec. On Thursday, a man inLes Coteauxdied while attempting to cut down tree branches on his property.

Grocery stores open Easter Sunday in affected regions

Temporary shelterswhere people can warm up and charge their devices will stay open this weekend.

The Quebec government announced that some grocery stores will be open on Sunday, despite the Easter holiday, in most of the affected regionsto ensure food security for the population in exceptional circumstances.

Fitzgibbon saidgrocery storescan reopen in Montreal, Laval, Lanaudire, the Montrgie, the Outaouais, and the Lower Laurentians.

The stores can be open between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., but store hours will vary according to the company.

But some other businesses like oneflower shop inPointe-Claire in Montreal's West Island standto lose a lot of money because of the power outages.

Fig Fleurshas been without electricity since Wednesday.It just received a huge shipment for Easter.

"Everything will have to be thrown out because we have no way of, you know, refrigerating flowers," saidco-ownerMarie Valle.

"It's a tragedy and it's a huge loss for us."

Valle says she and her partner have been trying to get clients in, but it hasn't been easy given there's no one around on the normallybustling shopping strip in the Pointe-Claire village.

"I mean, we can hang on to things for a few days, but if we don't get any power, it's serious," she said.

More than 3,100 Hydro-Qubeccustomers in Pointe-Claire are without power.Dollard-Des Ormeauxand Pierrefondsarethe hardest-hit regions in the West Island, with more than 6,900and 6,100clients in the dark, respectively.

Vehicle ticketing has resumed

On Friday, city of Montreal spokesperson Philippe Sabourinsaid most major roads have been cleared, though fallen branches still littered some city streets on Saturday.

The city issued a statement saying it would not issue tickets until Saturday morning for cars parked in areas withspring cleaning restrictions and reserved parking restrictions.

"If tickets have been issued in these cases, the sustainable mobility agency will take the necessary steps required in order to cancel them," a Friday statement read.

Sabourin also urged people to stay out ofparks, which are closed, as they are still being cleaned up. He saidit will take days to pick up all fallen branches.

Heavy ice in some cases up to 25 millimetres of it, according to Environment Canada sent branches crashing onto power lines, streets and cars on Wednesday.