Timeline of January 1998
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January 5
- 10 to 20 mm of freezing rain
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January 6
- 34 mm of freezing rain
- 700,000 customers without power in the Outaouais, Beauce, Montérégie and Montréal regions
- Eight transmission towers collapse along Highway 20 near Drummondville
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January 7
- 7.5 mm of freezing rain
- 435,000 customers without power
- 800 tree trimmers arrive from the United States to help out Hydro-Québec workers
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January 8
- 23 mm of freezing rain
- 1,023,000 customers without power
- Many high-voltage transmission lines collapse in Montérégie
- 3,000 members of the Canadian Armed Forces arrive to help civil society organizations and Hydro-Québec
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January 9
- 14 mm of freezing rain, for a total of 78 mm
- Downtown Montréal in the dark
- Montréal metro stops running
- All bridges between Montréal and the South Shore closed, except the Louis-Hippolyte-Lafontaine bridge-tunnel
- Montréal water filtration plants shut down due to power failure
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January 10
- Rain stops, intense cold and snow
- 1,393,000 customers without power
- Rebuilding starts
- Damage: 24,000 poles down, 900 steel towers and 3,000 km of lines to be rebuilt
- 1,250 line workers arrive from the United States to lend a hand to Hydro-Québec crews
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January 11
- Shelters almost at full capacity
- Québec Premier Lucien Bouchard calls for solidarity among all Quebecers
- Power restored to downtown Montréal, but grid still unstable
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January 12
- Deicing starts in downtown Montréal
- 100 more line crews arrive from Detroit
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January 13
- 380,000 customers still without power
- Québec government issues an order in council establishing a financial assistance program for disaster victims
- Hydro-Québec logo on head office turned off at 5:00 p.m.
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January 14
- Only 50,000 people left without power in Montréal, but still some 350,000 in Montérégie
- Temperatures continue to drop
- 97% of Hydro-Québec customers satisfied with handling of situation
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January 15
- Helicopter operation to reconnect Beauharnois generating station to Aqueduc substation and strengthen the grid
- Deicing continues in downtown Montréal
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January 16
- Québec government and Hydro-Québec start countdown to rebuilding lines in Montérégie
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January 17
- 256,000 customers still without power
- Generators, blankets, food and firewood arrive from all over Québec
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January 27
- 62,000 customers still without power
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February 6
- Power restored to last customer
- Hydro-Québec logo on head office turned back on