Some 175,000 Ontarians without power after weekend ice storm, strong winds
Premier Doug Ford says he plans to visit some of the areas without power
Premier Doug Ford said Thursday that he plans to visit some areas affected by prolonged power outages since a powerful ice storm hit central and northern Ontario over the weekend.
Hydro One said that of the approximately 175,000 customers without power as of late Thursday afternoon, nearly 45,000 lost power in the previous 24 hours as a result of high winds that have affected central and eastern parts of the province.
The weekend ice storm caused severe damage in cities such as Orillia and Peterborough, while another storm system that moved through parts of Ontario Wednesday and overnight caused additional outages and slowed down restoration efforts, the utility said.
"It's heartbreaking," Ford told reporters at Queen's Park on Thursday morning. "We're working full out again, we have the teams out there from emergency management, the Ontario Corps, warming centres, foods brought in."
Ford's office said he would be visiting the storm command centre in Orillia on Friday.
Meanwhile, Hydro One said power has been restored for more than 85 per cent of nearly a million affected customers but there is "still a lot of work ahead" until everyone gets their electricity back. The utility said its crew members have discovered more than 1,800 broken poles so far.
The weekend storm is the most severe weather event the utility said it's faced since the ice storm of 1998.
Some have now relied on generators since Saturday
Kaylene Sutton says her house just north of Fenelon Falls in Kawartha Lakes hasn't been warmer than 16.1 C since she lost power Saturday.
She and her husband have a small generator that they use to power their fridge, freezer and a space heater, she says, but it has to be refuelled every six hours.
"It's very expensive," Sutton said. "A lot of gas. A lot of inconvenience. A lot of cold nights."
Sutton says Hydro One has told her she'll have power back by Friday night.
"Hopefully soon," she said. "But we still have trees down everywhere and wires wrapped around trees. I'm thinking it'll be a lot longer than tomorrow night."
Nearby, in the small community of Coboconk, Jack Pearce says his generator can power his whole house, but he has to travel a ways to keep it fuelled because the station nearby still can't take anything but cash.
Pearce says the storm downed trees on his property, and it took two days to clear the dirt road to his house. He was still cleaning debris from his property Thursday.
"It's a mess," he said.
Pearce says he was also in Coboconk during the ice storm of 1998. He says the biggest difference in that storm, was that more people were around the community.
"Everybody was able to pitch in and help," he said. "This year, nobody's here ... just my family and myself, and it's really overwhelming."
Other provinces sending help, says Ford
Meanewhile, Ford said the governments of Quebec and Saskatchewan have sent hydro crews to help, and he also thanked non-governmental organizations, including GlobalMedic and Team Rubicon, for providing supplies and cutting trees.
It said 3,800 Hydro One workers, contractors and others are working to restore power to hardest-hit areas and "most" customers are expected to be back online by the weekend.
"For remote areas, including customers who can only be reached by water, restoration may take longer," the utility said in a statement. "Road access continues to be a challenge in the most impacted areas, along with safety concerns of tree branches and limbs coming down."
Ford said some people in those hard-hit areas don't have access to information and online resources.
"When someone's internet is down and televisions are down, we have to come up with a new mechanism to communicate because it's very difficult to communicate when people don't have the ability to watch television," he said.
Police asking public for patience with storm cleanup
Provincial police have been asking non-locals to keep away from the affected areas until storm cleanup is under control and urging residents to be patient as power outages persist.
OPP said Thursday that a hydro worker in the Peterborough area was threatened by a driver upset about the outages.
"The Peterborough County OPP understand that area residents still experiencing power outages are feeling frustrated and upset but remind individuals that making threats can be considered a criminal offence and will not be tolerated," police said in a news release.
Some parts of southern Ontario were hit by another round of wild spring weather, with thunderstorms dumping as much as 75 millimetres of rain in parts of the Greater Toronto Area in the early hours of Thursday morning.
Police asked drivers to use caution as flooding was been reported on highways throughout the Greater Toronto Area, and Peel Region police said some roads near Highway 407 in Brampton and Mississauga were closed due to flooding.
The Toronto and Region Conservation Authority was also cautioning the public about possible localized ponding and rising water levels due to rainfall, as well as melting snow and ice.
With files from Ethan Lang and Dale Manucdoc