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It was an unexpected task for bookstore owner Raven Taylor to add to her Friday morning routine: brushing her teeth at work.
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The frozen pipes inside her Notre-Dame-de-Grâce home left Taylor without running water following days without heat. So, she decided to head early to her shop, Librairie Phoenix Books, ahead of its usual noon opening.
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In an interview with The Gazette, Taylor recalled past storms, pulling a copy of Stories from the Ice Storm from her shop window display and describing the January 1998 ice storm as “disastrous” for Montreal.
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“I’m a bit surprised. I thought the city had a better cold-weather response,” Taylor said. “I thought we would have learned more from the ice storm.”
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Last weekend, a transformer malfunction at the Hampstead substation cut electricity to about 15,000 addresses in the Côte-St-Luc and Notre-Dame-de-Grâce area. And while heat has largely been restored, Hydro-Québec continues work on the system. Some residents, however, have been left dealing with the consequences of a power outage amid extreme cold.
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Dozens of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce residents complained on Facebook on Thursday about having no running water, even though electricity had returned earlier in the week.
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The borough says it is not aware of any frozen public supply pipes, suggesting the issue involves private plumbing inside homes.
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“We are wholeheartedly with the residents affected by the consequences of the prolonged power outage,” Sonny Moroz, interim mayor of Côte-des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, said in a statement.
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He urged tenants to notify their landlords of any frozen or broken pipes, adding if no action is taken within a reasonable time, residents should contact 311 so an inspector can be dispatched.
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“Citizens can access the sanitary facilities of the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce Sports Centre and the Trenholme Sports Centre, where they can shower and use the toilets,” Moroz said.
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Taylor said she does not understand why more preventive work was not done, adding the city’s response has not matched the scale of the problem.
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“It felt really slow,” she said. “Thousands of households lost power, and they opened an overnight shelter with 50 beds. That’s not going to cut it.”
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Taylor said it was difficult for some residents to reach warming centres, adding she paid for taxi rides for people who stopped by the bookstore after spending extended periods in cold homes.
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In an earlier video announcement, Moroz said the city would ensure Hydro-Québec “owns up to everything they need to.”
