Since the start of the devasting ice storm (March 28, 11 p.m.), crews have restored power to more than 93 per cent of customers (up 2 per cent from the last update yesterday afternoon). This severe storm that started on Friday, March 28 and continued into late Sunday and covered a large and wide area of the province. At this time there are 102,000 customers without power and new outages continue to be reported as customers are checking on the status of their secondary properties. Of the customers without power at this time, nearly 31,000 are secondary properties such as cottages and trailers.
With heavy rain forecasted for today in many of these locations, restoration may be slowed and our helicopters are grounded until it is safe to fly. In some locations such as Minden, heavy rains and localized flooding have washed out roads creating further access issues for crews. Many of the affected communities sustained severe damage to their local distribution grid, which continues to be uncovered as new areas are accessed. In some areas damage is so severe crews are rebuilding entire sections of the local distribution grid. To date, crews have identified 2,181 (up 208 from the last update yesterday afternoon) broken poles.
There are 4,000 crew members working as safely and quickly to restore power. This includes our contractors and 29 utility partners from Ontario and other provinces providing us with Mutual Assistance. This now includes PUC Services (Sault Ste. Marie), Elexicon and Wasaga Power.
It is critical for customers experiencing flooding in their home that is starting to reach electrical outlets, baseboard heaters or furnace, call us at 1-800-434-1235 to have power safely turned off. Water and electricity do not mix. Do not enter any flooded areas, such as the basement, until power is disconnected.
Restoration in the hardest hit areas will continue into next week. For remote areas, including customers who can only be reached by water, restoration may take longer. This includes many seasonal properties.
Safety is our priority. There are a number of additional critical messages we continue to share including:
- Turning off the stove or any elements that may have been in use when the power went out along with any other major appliances. We are receiving reports from multiple fire departments that this continues to be a big concern.
- Customers that have damage to their home’s electrical equipment (ex. stack/pipe where the powerline from the road connects to their home), need to have a licensed electrician make the necessary repairs. Customers can learn more about the steps to take through the Electrical Safety Authority- https://esasafe.com/safety/storm-safety/restoring-power/.
- Customers in the process of having a licensed electrician install a generator should follow the instructions below to avoid the temporary disconnection requirement and breaking the meter seal – Flash 25-15-FL.
Hydro One serves customers in largely rural parts of the province which poses unique challenges such as thousands of kilometers of distribution line traversing through various off-road terrain including heavily forested areas, Canadian Shield, water access only locations and islands. Hydro One has 126,000 circuit kilometres of primary distribution lines – enough to wrap around the earth three times.
Below is the updated regional breakdown by operations centre that includes number of outages and customers restored since the beginning of the storm on Friday, March 28, and the number of active outages and customers without power at this time. These numbers include the additional outages caused by the weather over the last two days.
We have also included the number of seasonal properties affected by outages in each operations centre. These numbers are also included in the number of customers without power column. Please note these areas do not align with municipal boundaries as they are our broken down by our operations centres. A map of our operations centres’ service area can be found below.
| By the numbers – regional breakdown | ||||||
| Operations centre | Restored outages | Number of customers restored (approximate) | Active outages | Number of customers without power (approximate) | Percentage of customers restored (approximate) | Number of seasonal properties (approximate) |
| Fenelon Falls | 426 | 76,073 | 623 | 26,043 | 70% | 5,001 |
| Peterborough (surrounding area) | 484 | 88,139 | 586 | 14,238 | 86% | 2,583 |
| Ashburnham (Peterborough proper) | 240 | 97,238 | 101 | 2,685 | 97% | – |
| Orillia (surrounding area) | 220 | 41,981 | 392 | 14,476 | 74% | 2,257 |
| Couchiching (Orillia proper) | 166 | 43,117 | 162 | 2,733 | 94% | – |
| Bracebridge | 201 | 72,243 | 239 | 11,023 | 87% | 7,504 |
| Penetang | 247 | 66,395 | 115 | 4,977 | 93% | 3,247 |
| Tweed | 710 | 92,165 | 27 | 491 | 99% | 323 |
| Minden | 131 | 50,807 | 156 | 6,950 | 88% | 4,112 |
| Barrie | 260 | 52,283 | 229 | 4,485 | 92% | 408 |
| Bancroft | 317 | 43,322 | 113 | 5,298 | 89% | 3,805 |
| Parry Sound | 180 | 60,702 | 38 | 1,537 | 98% | 1,282 |
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
