May 21 storm knocked out power for thousands

The number has been slowly, steadily dropping, but thousands of people in Ottawa and parts of eastern Ontario have been without powerafter the damage caused by a severe storm late in the afternoon ofMay 21.

The windstorm was the first derechoin Canada this century, with winds peaking at 190 km/h south of central Ottawa. About 350,000 local customers were without power in the immediate aftermath.

Hydro Ottawa has described the widespread damage from the lightning and windstormas worse than the 1998 ice storm and 2018 tornadoes.

As of Thursday morning, about 300 Hydro Ottawa customers were still without power (the map below may showsmaller outages not related to the storm).

Hydro One's website indicates another 5,900 or so customers in eastern Ontario were still out. The power is generally back on in theOutaouais.

Hydro Ottawa's outage map also indicated Tuesday morning that some residents across the city can expect power back as late as this coming Friday, June 3.

Hydro One, meanwhile, reported Tuesday that most of the customers without power in eastern Ontario livenear Tweed and Bancroft.

On its website, Hydro One said it may be several days until power is restored to remote customers in the Perth and Bancroft areas, and "a small number of customers" around Tweed may be without power for several more weeks.

Support is available from some of the hardest-hit municipalities.

Severe thunderstorm leaves trail of damage in Ottawa area

2 years ago

Duration 2:07

Saturdays storm toppled trees, damaged homes and downed power lines, leaving more than 100,000 customers in the dark. The strongest gust of wind at the Ottawa International Airport measured 120 km/h.