Hydro-Québec is turning off the lights for Montreal residents and businesses in the West Island.

Some 64,000 customers will be left in the dark from Friday at 9 p.m. to Saturday at 6 a.m.

The utility says the overnight work is essential to maintaining the electrical grid ahead of winter, and to avoid the kind of surprise failures that lead to much longer, unplanned outages.

“People are not going to come. So I’m going to lose Ubers, everything,” said Elisa Giambattista, the owner of Kojax Souflaki in Dollard-des-Ormeaux.

Giambattista says she only got word of the outage after receiving a notice from Hydro-Québec earlier this week.

“I literally called yesterday Hydro-Québec to make sure this was not a joke,” she told CityNews.

She says the outage will force her to close two hours early — costing her up to $900 in sales.

“I have to be careful with my meats,” Giambattista said.

“I might take some home and make sure they’re not going to go bad or anything like that.”

Elisa Giambattista, the owner of Kojax Souflaki in Dollard-des-Ormeaux, prepares a gyro. (Zachary Cheung, CityNews)

Hydro-Québec’s maintenance work will take place at the Des Sources substation in DDO.

Customers in DDO, Dorval, Île-Bizard–Sainte-Geneviève, Kirkland, Pierrefonds-Roxboro, Pointe-Claire and Saint-Laurent are expected to lose power.

“It might be a good idea for people to preheat the house if they want to,” recommended Cendrix Bouchard, a Hydro-Québec spokesperson.

“If you’re using secondary heating devices that need to be used outside, make sure you do so outside, for sure.”

Giambattista isn’t the only one caught off guard. Her next-door neighbour Dan Poncharem, the owner of Quesada Burritos & Tacos, says he wasn’t aware until she told him.

“He had no idea,” Giambattista said. “I had to tell him yesterday, the day before, and he says, ‘what are you talking about?’”

Elisa Giambattista, the owner of Kojax Souflaki in Dollard-des-Ormeaux, says she thought the outage was a joke. (Zachary Cheung, CityNews)

“No, I didn’t get any call, any message,” Poncharem confirmed. “I don’t know because even I asked employees, ‘did I (get a) call?’ No. So we didn’t get nothing.”

With the number of fresh veggies and sauces his restaurant keeps on hand, Poncharem worries ingredients won’t survive the whole night without power.

“I find 10 hours is too long,” he said.

“As we have a restaurant, what are we going to do? So I have no plan.”

Dan Poncharem, the owner of Quesada Burritos & Tacos in Dollard-des-Ormeaux. (Zachary Cheung, CityNews)

As for residents, many are preparing for a night without heat.

“There’s old people in my house,” one West Island resident said. “I have a sleep apnea machine, and Hydro closes it when it’s minus something. I mean, can’t they do this in the fall?”

“My only fear is that they might not restore the power by six o’clock,” added another.

Others are set on taking the outage in stride.

“I decided to go to a nine o’clock movie and then go home prepared with candles and flashlights to sleep. No big deal,” one person said.