Woman, 87, dead after waiting out power failure during Montreal cold snap

Neighbours are reeling after the death of an 87-year-old woman on Sunday during a power outage in Notre-Dame-de-Grace—and say they believe it was preventable.

Neighbours are reeling after the death of an 87-year-old woman on Sunday during a power outage in Notre-Dame-de-Grace, they say they believe was preventable.

She is the second person to die in the area since the power failure began on Saturday.

Sheila Padmore and her 91-year-old husband were attempting to wait out the outage in their apartment on Sunday evening.

“I got the call yesterday morning that she had passed during the night,” said Dawn Lambing, who, like thousands of her neighbours, spent 72 hours with no electricity during a deep winter freeze.

Lambing said police officers knocked on her door on Sunday afternoon to carry out a wellness check on her elderly upstairs neighbours.

“We went in, and we got upstairs, and it was obvious that Sheila needed to be transported to the hospital. She was very cold, but she was still alive,” said Lambing, who said it was understandable why they were staying in their home.

“I can see why they kept staying, just because they kept being told, ‘Oh, another four hours, okay, another maybe five hours.’ So, you know, you always have this hope that it’s going to come on any time now. And, and it was just too late,” she said.

Lambing said doctors at the hospital told her Padmore’s core temperature was 22 C when she arrived.

She did not survive the night.

The coroner has launched an investigation into her death.

A Hydro-Quebec spokesperson expressed sympathy for the woman’s family but said it could not make any further comment while the coroner’s investigation was ongoing.

“I feel like this is entirely avoidable,” said NDG resident Alex Bellhassen. “If we had known what the situation was from the get-go, I think this would not have happened.”

Interim Côte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grace Borough Mayor Sonny Moroz, who is replacing Stéphanie Valenzuela, who is on maternity leave, says he met with the head of Hydro-Quebec on Tuesday morning.

“My deepest condolences to the entire family, to the community, the residents on the block that dealt with this tragic death. We’re going to do everything we can to get answers for the family and those closest to them,” said Moroz.

Burst pipes

At the same time, some residents on the block are dealing with serious damage inside their homes.

“All of a sudden, I’m in the middle of a work call and I just hear a loud boom of water, almost like a waterfall in the bathroom,” said Juliana Herrera, who said when the heat turned back on in her NDG home in the night, they tried to reheat the house slowly, but the frozen pipes burst, flooding her bathroom and her downstairs neighbours’ apartment.

“I’m just shocked at the lack of accountability. We’ve also learned that a neighbour passed away from this situation, and it’s just pure shock,” she said.