The wind howled all night across the Eastern Townships, and the area around your cottage has been without power since morning. You don’t know whether it’s a branch on the line along the road or a tree down on your own service wire. Here’s what to do, in order, starting with what can be dangerous.

What to do right now

1. Stay well away from any downed wire

This is rule number one. A wire on the ground, or resting on a fence, a branch or a vehicle, can be live even if it isn’t humming or sparking. Hydro-Québec puts it plainly: keep your distance and never use anything to try to move the line — even a tree branch conducts current. Keep kids and pets away.

To report a downed line, Hydro-Québec says to call 911. Call it as well for any immediate danger: a wire on an occupied car, a fire starting, someone injured.

2. Check the grid from home

Look at Hydro-Québec’s outage map before you drive up. An outage across your area usually points to a problem on the grid. If the neighbours have power and you don’t, the problem may be on your side: a branch on the wire to the house, a torn-off service mast, the main breaker.

3. Arrive in daylight and look before you walk

On a wooded road after high winds, trees may be down or hung up in other trees. Don’t walk under a leaning tree or a broken branch that’s dangling. If a tree is blocking the driveway, don’t cut it if it’s touching a wire.

4. Look at the house’s electrical service

From the ground, at a good distance, look at the wire running from the pole to the house and the mast it attaches to. A bent or torn-off mast, a sagging wire, a branch resting on it: don’t touch anything. Repairing the mast and service entrance on the house side is generally the owner’s responsibility and has to be done by a master electrician before the connection is restored. Hydro-Québec looks after its own network: confirm the split with them and with your electrician before any work starts.

5. Walk around the roof and walls

Still from the ground: missing or lifted shingles, shifted metal, torn flashing, eavestroughs pulled loose, branches or debris on the roof, damaged siding. Photograph each side. Don’t climb onto the roof.

6. Windows, doors and inside

Check every window: cracked or broken glass, a window blown open.
Look at the upstairs ceilings: a torn shingle can let in the rain that followed the wind.
If the power is out, think about the heat and the well pump. In winter, a long outage raises the question of frozen pipes.

7. If you have a generator

Never run it indoors, in the garage or under a window: carbon-monoxide risk. And never plug it straight into an outlet or the panel without a transfer switch installed by a master electrician: power can feed back into the grid and put line crews in danger.

8. Document, then call

Photograph the damage before you clean up. Call your insurer or broker about damage to the building and write down the claim number. For repairs, use an RBQ-licensed contractor: a roofer for the roof, a master electrician for the service entrance.

Why it happens — especially at a Townships cottage

Cottages are usually surrounded by trees. That’s a big part of the appeal in Sutton, Potton or Frelighsburg. But a tall tree over the roof, or a row of trees along the service wire, becomes a risk when the wind picks up — especially when the ground is soaked or frozen on top.

Wind finds the weak spots. An already-lifted shingle, loose flashing, a sagging eavestrough: one gust is enough to tear them off. The damage then lets water in at the next rain.

Rural outages last longer. A cottage at the end of a wooded back road served by a single line can wait longer than a house in town: the road and the right-of-way have to be cleared before anything gets repaired.

Wind and ice often travel together. In winter, branches weighed down with ice give way even more easily in the wind.

Prevention: what you can do, and what belongs to a professional

What an owner can do:

Spot dead, leaning or split trees near the house and along the service wire, and have them assessed.
Put away or securely tie down anything the wind could carry off — outdoor furniture, the barbecue, bins and boxes — before a forecast storm, as Québec.ca recommends.
Keep eavestroughs securely fastened and clean.
Know where the main breaker is — and leave it alone if there’s water or damage.
Follow Environment Canada’s warnings for your area.

What belongs to a professional:

Taking down or pruning a hazardous tree: an arborist or experienced tree service. Any work near a power line is coordinated with Hydro-Québec.
Repairing the mast and service entrance, installing a transfer switch: a master electrician.
Repairing roofing, flashing and siding: an RBQ-licensed contractor.

In an empty house, how long before anyone notices?

A torn-off shingle makes no noise once the storm has passed. A broken window lets in rain, snow and animals. An outage stops the heat and the well pump. At an empty cottage, nobody sees any of it until somebody stops by. If the next visit is three weeks away, that’s how long water or cold have to do their work.

That’s why a visit after each big storm matters as much as the regular ones. If insurance comes into it, conditions vary from one insurer to the next: ask your broker what applies to wind damage.

What we look at on a visit

After high winds, we first check access to the house and look — without touching — at the trees and branches around the house and over the electrical service wire. We walk around the roof from the ground, check the eavestroughs and downspouts, then every window. Inside, we confirm the power is on. Every finding is photographed and time-stamped in the report.

If something’s off, we call you the same day, with photos. We don’t go near a downed wire: we call 911, as Hydro-Québec instructs. If needed, we meet a master electrician or RBQ-licensed contractor on site and document the work.

After a big windstorm: checking the roof, trees and wires