WATCH ABOVE: Hydro says there could be some more short term power interruptions as crews work to clear the grid. Rachel Lau reports.
KNOWLTON – The lights on Jessica Brown’s Christmas tree won’t be turning on tonight.
Her house, along with many others in the Eastern Townships, hasn’t had power since the huge ice storm Saturday.
“It came back on and we thought we were all in the clear and everything was fine,” she said.
“But yesterday morning I was sitting here early, you know watching TV with my daughter and I wasn’t rushing to have a shower because we already had our power failure and we were all good again and the lights went out.”
Hydro-Quebec says it’s working harder than ever to restore electricity in time for holiday festivities, but the damage is so severe they can’t guarantee power will be up in time for Christmas dinner.
“Most of them should have the power restored today,” said Helene Perreault, a spokes person for Hydro-Quebec Richelieu.
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“However in areas where access is more difficult, the power restoration is not anticipated until tomorrow at the end of the day.”
Some residents have taken it upon themselves to give the workers a hand.
Philip Godin spent 9 hours picking up fallen branches.
His electricity came back tentatively just a few hours ago.
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“Whenever the breeze would pick up, branches would snap off,” he said.
“Throughout the night you could hear crashing and trees coming down and I knew for sure that the driveway would be covered in branches and trees.”
Environment Canada says the weather should stay steady in the Townships over the next few days.
It will be cold, but not threatening.
For the time being, Brown has moved her family out of their home.
She says the hardest thing has been explaining to her 4-year-old daughter why they won’t be home to celebrate Christmas.
“She said ‘but we have to go home tonight because the Christmas tree is at home, you know, where are the presents going to go if there’s no Christmas tree?'” said Brown.
“This is a big issue right now we’re just trying to get over that hurdle. I’m kind of taking it one hour at a time hoping that the power comes back on because I would like to be home for Christmas too.”
It seems she, along with all her neighbours, will just have to wait and pray for a Christmas miracle.
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