Huge Blackout on Yom Tov in Montreal Following Ice Storm

Around a million people were affected by a significant blackout in Montreal over Yom Tov due to an ice storm.

Power supposedly went out for many hours, possibly even longer, for frum Jewish residents. After a catastrophic ice storm on Erev Yom Tov, over 1.1 million consumers in Quebec were without power at their peak.

According to reports, over 90,000 residents in Montreal still don’t have access to electricity as the outage continued for a third straight day.

Crews from Hydro-Québec have been working all weekend to restore power.

Power has been restored to more than 900,000 consumers.

Most homes should have power by the end of the weekend, Hydro-Québec claimed at a news conference Friday, but to the dismay of many, they could not provide an exact timeframe.

According to reports, Jewish households in Montreal lacked power on Yom Tov, which probably made it more difficult to preserve food from deteriorating and stay warm.

The number of frum families affected by the outages is unknown.

We want to restore everything as soon as possible, said Maxime Nadeau, director of energy system control at Hydro-Québec.

Following the death of one man from carbon monoxide poisoning, he also advised Quebecers to exercise caution when using gas-powered appliances indoors.

Since Wednesday, 135 people in Montreal have received treatment for carbon monoxide poisoning, according to a public health official.

“To put that in context, we typically receive a few dozen a year in a calendar year. Hence, according to Dr. David Kaiser, deputy medical director for Montreal public health, this is entirely out of proportion.

According to him, the most frequent causes of incidents include people using campfires or barbecues indoors for cooking or warmth and generators being too close to residences or near air inlets.