Overnight winds could hamper ice storm power restoration

ABOVE: Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, along with Toronto Hydro CEO Anthony Haines, updated the public Friday on the state of power restoration efforts with 32,000 residents still without power

TORONTO – Increased winds and changing weather could set back efforts to restore power to thousands of Ontario residents as ice storm recovery efforts move into their seventh day.

Authorities warned Friday that more homes and business could experience power outages as hydro crews work to bring back the lights to almost 32,000 Toronto Hydro customers and thousands more north and east of the city.

According Environment Canada, Toronto and surrounding areas could experience wind gusts up to 30 km/h overnight, which could bring down more ice-laden tree branches.

READ MORE: Ice storm: Outages may last into New Year

“Our biggest concern is tonight, we might have wind gusts over 40 kilometres an hour. … That’s going to cause problems,” Toronto Mayor Rob Ford said in a news conference Friday.

Toronto Hydro CEO Anthony Haines noted Friday there will probably be further outages – just hours before a transformer exploded near Bathurst and St. Clair, disrupting transit and leaving many in the Annex complaining about power outages.

READ MORE: Thousands of Toronto residents still in the dark

“We are still in a triage level,” he said. “It would be unfair for people to say, ‘Expect your power on tomorrow.’ … I think that would be irresponsible. What we’ve been saying since Day One is to assume the worst.”

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