The City of Montreal announced Tuesday that it was closing its disaster shelters, six days after the ice storm which deprived tens of thousands of people of electricity in the metropolis.
Citizens whose residence has not yet been reconnected will still be able to obtain assistance from municipal services, but individually rather than collectively.
“If you need help, we will continue to provide help,” assured the head of the Montreal Fire Department (SIM), Richard Liebmann. “The good news is that Hydro-Québec continues to make progress in restoring electricity throughout the territory, but we will not let anyone down. »
Some 138 people spent at least one night in one of the eight shelters opened by the City of Montreal, according to Mr. Liebmann.
On the official level, the Montreal Civil Security Center (managed by the SIM) switches this Tuesday from “intervention” mode to “recovery” mode.
Alain Vaillancourt, the elected official responsible for civil security on the executive committee of the City of Montreal, said that the firefighters would do “a good retrospective” of the last few days in order to learn lessons from the ice storm. Will the lack of pruning of City-owned trees near power lines be investigated? “We have to look at issues like pruning trees, working with Hydro-Quebec to make sure the lines are [clear],” he said. “We’ll look into it. This is an issue that needs to be looked at. »
Mr. Vaillancourt would not comment on timelines for the full clean-up of the city.
The mayoress of Montreal did not participate in the SIM press briefing. However, she went to Parc La Fontaine with the mayor of Plateau-Mont-Royal, an activity to which the media were not invited.
