Eight public schools in Durham Region and one in Toronto will remain closed Tuesday because they do not yet have access to power after Saturday’s ferocious and deadly storm.

The Durham District School Board says Uxbridge Secondary School (Uxbridge), Uxbridge Public School (Uxbridge), Joseph Gould Public School (Uxbridge), Goodwood Public School (Uxbridge), Lincoln Avenue Public School (Ajax), E.A. Fairman Public School (Whitby), Southwood Park Public School (Ajax) and Valley View Public School (Pickering) will hopefully reopen on Wednesday.

In addition, the Toronto District School Board says that AY Jackson Secondary School has been removed to remote learning for the day, also due to a power outage.

“The decision to close these schools has been made to protect the health and safety of students, parents/guardians and staff as electricity is needed to safely operate a school,” the Durham board said in a statement issued on Monday. “Many students in the area of these schools may also be without power and therefore, not able to access virtual learning. For this reason, there will be NO remote learning taking place at those schools.”

The Durham District Catholic School Board says all of its schools had power as of Tuesday morning and will be open. 

Saturday’s storm generated winds of up to 132 km/h, downing trees, knocking down hydro wires and killing as many as 10 people across Ontario.

It also knocked out hydro service for 500,000 people across Ontario. As of Tuesday morning, Hydro One said that crews were still working to restore electricity to more than 150,000 homes.

Meanwhile, in Toronto only about 1,700 customers remained without power, down from as many as 110,000. 

“The remaining outages are generally local and specific in nature, and we’re seeing a lot of damage caused by fallen trees,” a spokesperson for Toronto Hydro said in a statement provided to CP24. “This part of restoration always the most challenging for us. In some cases, cranes must be brought in to remove large trees and tree limbs before our crews are able to restore power, but we have all available construction resources on deck.”

The Town of Uxbridge has declared a local state of emergency due to storm damage.