Power has been restored to thousands of Toronto Hydro customers after a powerful storm knocked down hydro wires and tree branches across the city on Tuesday.
At the peak of the storm, Toronto Hydro said about 27,000 customers were without power. That number has now fallen to under 400 as crews continue restoration efforts on Wednesday morning.
“Please note that estimated time of restoration will vary depending on the specific outage, but we’re expecting that a significant portion of customers will be restored this evening and overnight,” a spokesperson for Toronto Hydro told CP24 in an email.
Estimated times of restoration can be found on Toronto Hydro’s outage map, the spokesperson noted.
People are urged to report downed wires to the utility and stay at least 10 metres back from fallen powerlines.
Tuesday’s storm also left a woman in her 30s in critical condition after she was struck by a branch that had fallen in the area of St. Clair Avenue West and Avenue Road in midtown.
Police said she is receiving treatment at a Toronto trauma centre.
Across the province, Hydro One confirmed that about 64,000 of its customers remain without power following Tuesday’s storm.
“In central Ontario, places like Bracebridge, Orillia, Huntsville, they were still dealing with trees that had been weakened and damaged (from the ice storm), not yet part of the cleanup, that would have come loose as those winds come through the area, Tiziana Baccega Rosa, a spokesperson for Hydro One, told CP24 on Wednesday morning.
In an update on Wednesday afternoon, Hydro One said there are still around 35,000 customers without power across these regions. The power company says they have deployed crews from unaffected areas, adding that estimated times of restoration may be updated through repair work and if crews find any more damage.
Outside of downed tree branches and trees on power lines, Hydro One says they have also seen broken poles.
