Progress made in restoring power in Toronto
Posted December 23, 2013 5:54 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO (NEWS1130) – Less than 200,000 Toronto Hydro customers are still without power and it’s uncertain if it will be restored by Christmas.
Toronto Hydro says power may not be fully restored until the weekend.
“I certainly can’t give you absolute figures at this point just because of the uncertainty,” Toronto Hydro CEO and president Anthony Haines says. “It is a lot of heavy lifting still ahead of us and a lot of uncertainty regarding timing and recovery in all of that because we frankly haven’t been in some of the communities yet.”
Mayor Rob Ford and hydro officials say the ice storm may be over but the situation is still dicey as temperatures are expected to dip to -12 C and frozen trees limbs could fall as winds pick up and break more power lines.
During a morning news conference, Ford said “we believe that the worst weather is over” and that the city would not be declaring a state of emergency following Saturday’s ice storm that coated the city with ice, brought down hydro lines and tree branches.
The Ontario government says the province is prepared and ready to assist any of those communities hit by the ice storm without having a declaration of an emergency.
Toronto opened nine community centres on Sunday where about 500 people were getting food and warmth.
More warming centres were opened today, including 13 police buildings and another four community centres.
Power to Toronto East General Hospital and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre has been restored.
At the height of the storm, 300,000 homes and businesses were without power.
