Hydro-Québec customers without power for 2 days in Montreal's Saint-Michel neighbourhood

Montreal resident Inti Dardet-Brown says his lung condition makes him sensitive to the cold. That's made the last few days without electricity even harder on him and his two boys.

The single dad said he has had to throw out $200 in groceries and they've been huddling up in his car to keep warm. It's frustrating to pay Hydro-Québec for a service he's not getting, he said.

"We keep calling and they have no response for us," he said. "It's ridiculous."

Dardet-Brown isn't the only one dealing with a power outage.

As of Monday morning, 2,500 addresses in Montreal were without power, according to Hydro-Québec's outage map. A spokesperson for the utility says about 1,000 of those addresses were in the neighbourhod of Saint-Michel.

The outage in the neighbourhood began at around 2:40 a.m. Saturday. 

The utility says the outage is due to equipment failure and work to restore power has been complicated. It initially said the power would be restored at around noon on Monday. Now it says the outage will be resolved by 8 p.m.

"We have complex and time-consuming underground work to be carried out," said Alain Paquette, a spokesperson for Hydro-Québec. 

Places to warm up have been made available to people who are affected and Montreal police say they've also gone door to door to check up on residents. They also say additional officers were dispatched to patrol the area for security reasons.

Resident Annick Mercier said it's been difficult.

"Just before Christmas, losing $800 worth of food," she said. "It's really bad."

Laurence Lavigne Lalonde, mayor of the Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension borough, said the first step was to set up locations for people to warm up, charge their devices and use bathrooms.

On Monday, she said the borough was preparing to keep the warming centres open for a couple days because it's not clear when the power will come back on for everybody. An overnight shelter will also be made available, she said.

She said borough officials are discouraging people from using gas-powered heating units to warm their homes because they are dangerous.

"We really mobilized our teams fast," she said but, she noted, the city didn't learn about the outages until Sunday.

"Citizens are absolutely welcome here," Lavigne Lalonde said of the shelter at the René-Goupil pool where people can spend the night. "They can come with their children, family. We have everything. It's not a five-star hotel, but it's a place where they can come and be comfortable and safe."

But Dardet-Brown said he is worried about abandoning his home during the outage. He worries burglars might take advantage of the empty houses.

Louis-Olivier Batty, a Hydro-Québec spokesperson, said the outage is in the underground network. Crews repair one section, and then a new one crops up in another section. A fourth section of cables was being replaced on Monday.

While power is expected back on by 8 p.m. Monday, he said there are tests to be made. At this point, it's not clear what caused the outage.

"We feel sorry for our customers," Batty said. "Please stay safe, and stay warm."