Power outages persist in hard-hit areas after Ontario ice storm

Paola Loriggio · The Canadian Press

· Posted: Apr 01, 2025 3:59 PM EDT | Last Updated: 12 minutes ago

Some Ontario regions hard deed by past weekend's crystal tempest whitethorn not retrieve powerfulness until the extremity of the week, Hydro One said Tuesday arsenic crews and communities braced for much freezing rainfall successful the coming days.

The inferior supplier said powerfulness has been restored to much than 667,000 homes and businesses since Friday, but much than 252,000 were inactive successful the acheronian arsenic of Tuesday afternoon, and repairs successful areas including Orillia and Peterborough could instrumentality until Friday.

"While today's upwind brings favourable conditions for cleanup and restoration, we are preparing for further freezing rainfall and upwind successful cardinal and southwest regions," the inferior said successful a statement.

"Wind speeds whitethorn not beryllium considered terrible but could origin damaged trees to autumn and interruption which whitethorn dilatory our efforts and origin further outages."

The tempest is the astir terrible upwind lawsuit the inferior has faced since the ice tempest of 1998, Hydro One spokesperson Teiziana Baccega Rosa told CBC News.

"We bash expect the restoration volition spell into the aboriginal portion of this week," she said.

'Like a warfare zone'

Kawartha Lakes nonmigratory Beverly Jeeves said the crystal connected her spot started to physique up rapidly arsenic the tempest rolled successful Friday night. 

"Ten trees came down successful a span of 40 minutes … you truly couldn't adjacent beryllium extracurricular to assistance your neighbours oregon to assistance yourself, astatine all," she told CBC News. 

"It was similar a warfare portion with the trees coming down, and it became precise unsafe to adjacent basal extracurricular here."

Now, Jeeves is imploring elected officials to nonstop cleanup assistance truthful that hydro crews tin absorption connected downed wires, and propane tin beryllium distributed to those with generators earlier their sump pumps neglect and flooding becomes a wide issue.

Several of the astir affected communities offered those without powerfulness a spot to lukewarm up oregon enactment overnight.

Warming centres were up and moving Tuesday astatine assemblage centres successful Orillia and adjacent Washago, arsenic good arsenic the Horseshoe Resort successful Oro-Medonte.

In Barrie, residents were directed to the Allandale Recreation Centre, wherever officials said well-behaved pets were besides permitted.

Peterborough Transit buses were stationed successful 4 locations to enactment arsenic impermanent warming centres, on with 3 sports and recreation complexes, 1 of which was acceptable to stay unfastened overnight.

The tempest covered roads and different surfaces with ice, causing hazardous driving conditions and harm to trees. Most metropolis facilities and each parks are closed until further announcement owed to downed trees and unstable branches.

As it moved east, the tempest besides caused outages successful Quebec, though connected a smaller standard with 3,000 customers inactive successful the dark, according to Hydro-Quebec.

Environment Canada issued a peculiar upwind connection Tuesday for a agelong of Ontario wherever freezing rainfall followed by dense rainfall are expected betwixt Wednesday and Thursday morning, but says the interaction won't beryllium arsenic important arsenic past weekend's storm.

Baccega Rosa said that arsenic of close now, not overmuch crystal buildup is expected, but winds of astir 60 km/h are possible, alongside the accidental of freezing rain.

"Given the immense devastation caused by the earlier storm, the hazard we truly spot astatine this clip is that immoderate winds could origin further trees to travel down … truthful this poses a hazard for much outages, successful summation to some nationalist and idiosyncratic safety," she said.

Seeing arsenic Tuesday brought amended weather, it's a bully accidental for radical inactive without powerfulness to replenish supplies oregon caput to enactment with friends oregon household until it's restored, Baccega Rosa added.

Parts of the Atlantic provinces and northeastern Quebec are nether dense rainfall oregon freezing rainfall warnings.