Rainfall warning still in place for Toronto on Wednesday night
Flooding possible in low lying areas as 2nd spring storm in less than a week hits GTA
Toronto remained under a rainfall warning on Wednesday night with heavy rain in the forecast until early Thursday.
Environment Canada said the city could see between 30 and 50 millimetres of rain and up to 75 millimetres in some areas if thunderstorms hit those areas repeatedly.
"The ground, already near saturation, has little ability to absorb further rainfall," the federal weather agency said in the warning.
The federal weather agency warned that flooding was possible in low-lying areas and there could be standing water on roads because of the heavy downpour.
The warning follows a messy mix of precipitation, including ice pellets, that hit the city during the day Wednesday.
A freezing rain warning and special weather statement for the city has been lifted. Some surrounding areas, however, including Newmarket, Georgina and northern York Region, Barrie, Collingwood and Hillsdale, Uxbridge and Beaverton, were still under freezing rain warnings on Wednesday night.
Environment Canada had earlier issued both freezing rain warnings and rainfall warnings for much of the GTA.
The wintry weather is the second spring storm to the region in less than a week.
Some flights were delayed or cancelled at Toronto's Pearson airport, with officials asking travellers to check the status of their flight with their airlines.
Thousands in Ontario still in the dark after ice storm
Power utility Hydro One says crews have been working around the clock since the last storm blew through, knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of homes across southern and eastern Ontario.
With around 192,000 customers still in the dark, there is concern that the latest storm's accompanying winds could trigger even more power outages.
In a statement Wednesday afternoon, Hydro One said crews are already seeing scattered outages in southwest Ontario as a result of high winds.
"Crews are out in full force working alongside our contractors and team members from 18 other Ontario utilities," the statement reads. Hydro one said they expect more help on that front in the coming days.
Since the start of the storm on March 28, officials say, crews have restored power to more than 80 per cent of customers affected — but they still expect restoration in the hardest-hit areas to continue through the week, with most people back online by the weekend.
"For remote areas, including customers who can only be reached by water, restoration may take longer," the statement reads. "Road access continues to be a challenge in the most impacted areas, along with safety concerns of tree branches and limbs coming down."
Britany Burnside, who was without grid power from early Saturday until Tuesday morning, was on her way to Costco Wednesday to stock up on essentials in anticipation of the storm.
"We're going to go stock up on water and soup, because that was one of the things we were lacking after a couple of days," said Burnside, who lives in a small community near Georgian Bay.
A short supply of fuel and food in some hard-hit communities around Ontario's cottage country prompted police to tell travellers to avoid the area. Meanwhile flood warnings were issued by several local conservation authorities as heavy rains were expected to roll off the already saturated ground and into swelling rivers.
Burnside said trees felled by the weekend ice storm still lined the roads.
"It honestly looks like a tornado went through everywhere," she said.
Crews working to restore power, premier says
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said the province has experienced "nothing like" the weekend ice storm, speaking at Queen's Park on Wednesday.
He said 28,000 crew members are working to restore power — including crews who were pulled from Saskatchewan, Quebec and New Brunswick.
"We have everyone focused on making sure we get up and going again," he said.
Mayor Don McIsaac of Orillia, which remained under a local state of emergency, said he was relieved the worst of the ice storm was behind them but told residents to stay alert.
"The city is actively preparing for this and will continue to adapt as the situation evolves," he said in a statement.
Storm chaser and meteorologist Mark Robinson warned last week that freezing rain can be difficult to predict.
"You need such exact meteorological conditions for that freezing rain to happen," he said in an interview with CBC Radio's Metro Morning on Friday. "If it's not perfect, you'll get a switchover to snow or pure rain."
Ontario Provincial Police told "non-local residents" to avoid several communities in and around cottage country, including Orillia, Bracebridge, Huntsville, Haliburton, Peterborough and Kawartha Lakes. Communities were dealing with shortages of food, fuel and other essential supplies, police said.
With files from The Canadian Press