6 Million Without Power During Night : Quebec Gets Lights Back, Then New Outage Hits

A power failure--the second in 12 hours--blacked out parts of Quebec today just minutes after crews restored electricity to 6 million people caught in a massive provincewide outage caused by a snowstorm.

The first blackout occurred at 8:08 p.m. EDT Monday when a transmission line failed at a hydroelectric substation in northern Quebec. It left 6 million Quebec residents in 2.8 million households without electricity for up to 12 hours in near-freezing weather.

In Montreal, the outage trapped thousands of people in subways, prompted looting and delayed a National Hockey League playoff game.

The blackout extended to parts of New Brunswick province and scattered areas of Maine and Vermont, a utility spokesman said.

All power had been restored by 8:30 a.m. today when a second failure at the same Arnaud substation in Sept-Iles, 500 miles northeast of Montreal, blacked out about 20% of Quebec, including parts of Montreal.

“We lost the same substation a second time,” Hydro-Quebec official Jean-Guy Ouimet said. “Both blackouts were caused by a snowstorm which covered equipment at the substation--transformers, condensers and switches--in ice.”

The first blackout terminated TV coverage of the Adams Division opening hockey game between the Montreal Canadiens and the Boston Bruins. The game at the Montreal Forum was interrupted in the first period but then continued with the use of emergency lights. Montreal won 5-2.

In downtown Montreal, looters smashed windows at a few stores, but Police Sgt. Alain Bousquet said looting was not widespread. There were no arrests.