Thousands still without power after Eastern Canadian ice storm
Posted December 27, 2013 10:16 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO (NEWS1130) – Utility companies say they understand the difficulties being faced by tens of thousands of people in Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick who are still without power after last weekend’s brutal ice storm but they are asking for patience.
Cleanup from a massive winter ice storm is in its sixth day in Toronto and the GTA.
According to Toronto Hydro CEO Anthony Haines, the storm is the “largest in Toronto Hydro’s history.“We are still saying prepare for the worst,” Toronto Hydro spokeswoman Tanya Bruckmueller told CityNews on Friday morning. “A lot of streets, we still can’t get down because of the large trees that have come down.”
It’s still not yet known when power will be fully restored.
Meanwhile, Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly said he’s concerned about the strain to the 2014 budget due to the cleanup cost. He has no numbers yet but did say that the massive flood on July 8 already zapped the majority of funds.
As of Friday morning, over 32,000 Toronto Hydro customers were still without power. “That number is slowly coming down. We are making progress [but] it’s not the progress we’d like to see,” Bruckmueller said.
The snow has hampered relief efforts, she explained. It has added additional weight to trees that are already heavy to ice and it covers everything that hydro crews are looking for, like live wires.
“It also presented issues with access and safety for customers,” Bruckmueller said.
Mayor Rob Ford said that as of 11:00am Friday, 450 people were using warming centres and 90 intersections were without power.
