While power has been restored to all customers impacted by the May 21 storm, Hydro crews continue to find debris, including trees and branches near power lines, as well as damage to equipment or other interferences, which has resulted in some unplanned outages within the service territory this week.
Over the next two weeks, Hydro Ottawa will be patrolling key areas of their service territory that were badly damaged by the storm.
In some cases, residents may experience intermittent outages as crews safely clean up and make repairs. Given the nature of this work, Hydro Ottawa will not be able to notify customers in advance. While there may be some larger outages required, most will likely impact 10 customers or less, and therefore will not appear on our outage centre map.
Hydro Ottawa understand the inconvenience this may cause, and appreciate the patience and understanding of residents as they continue to work on their restoration efforts and stabilize the system. Hydro Ottawa has established a social media outreach to help facilitate awareness.
It is important to note that in some cases, crews and contractors may require entry through residents’ backyards in order to access City of Ottawa right-of-ways and our electrical assets.
Crew will also perform tree trimming or cutting on residential property that is within a three-metre clearance area of our equipment. Hydro Ottawa is not responsible for the clean-up of debris from storms. The field crews are solely focused on safety and restoration efforts. Residents are encouraged to collect tree cuttings, brush and debris from their property and leave them by the curb for City collection, ensuring debris does not block sidewalks, roads or fire hydrants.
If there is a tree on a property outside of Hydro Ottawa’s three-metre clearance distance that requires removal or trimming unrelated to our power restoration efforts from the storm, residents should contact their insurance company. The organization, Samaritan’s Purse, also provides assistance to those requiring help with clean-up after the storm. This includes trees on property and debris. Residents can contact them at 1-844-547-2663. If the tree is on City of Ottawa property, residents should please call 3-1-1 to report it.
