Many Ontarians still without power

Eastern Canada continues to deal with winter weather woes. 6,800 people in Quebec and about 12,000 in New Brunswick are without power.

25,000 others in Ontario are still in the dark. Of those, over 15,000 are customers of Toronto Hydro. It’s been six days since the ice storm, and crews continue to work around the clock to restore hydro. A break from cold temperatures has allowed them to cover a lot of ground today, but the changing weather also comes with complications.

Most of Hamilton has had power back since yesterday, but it’s been a much bigger job in Toronto. With a cold snap expected tomorrow night, trees that were weakened by the storm will once again be at risk of snapping, and coming down on recently repaired hydro lines. Before crews can deal with the possibility of further outages, they are trying to address customers who are still without power, some of whom who have been in the dark for 6 or more days.

Despite the possibility that more customers could lose power, the CEO of Toronto Hydro is optimistic.
Anthony Haines says, “This is the first time in 7 days I have been able to stand here and say I can see the end line now. It’s right there. I can see it coming.”

With temperatures dropping to -8 degrees tomorrow night, residents across the Greater Toronto- Hamilton area are bracing for round two.