Wind Storm Knocks Out Power to 90,000 Ontario Homes

Hydro One News Release

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Hydro One mobilizes to restore power to 90,000 customers in communities most affected by severe wind storm

Toronto, September 24 - Severe winds gusting up to 90 kilometers-per-hour that moved across parts of the province earlier today has resulted in approximately 90,000 Hydro One customers losing power.

Hydro One crews and helicopters have been mobilized and deployed to assess and repair the damage resulting from the wind storm.

Initial indications are that some customers in the most impacted areas may remain without power overnight and into the early week.

Initial reports indicate that the most impacted areas include:

Penetang - 9,300 customers affected
Huntsville - 2,000
Minden - 9,500
Bancroft - 4,700
Bracebridge - 30,000
Parry Sound - 11,000
Cobden - 11,000

Customers are advised that a planned outage to conduct maintenance work in the Minden area, that would have affected 15,000 customers, has been postponed as crews focus on returning power to customers affected the current outage.

"This is the third significant outage we have faced in as many months," said Myles D'Arcey, senior vice-president, customer operations, Hydro One.

"As always, we will deploy all available resources to the restoration effort so that we can minimize, to the extent possible, the impact of this recent outage on our customers," D'arcey said.

"Again, we thank our customers for the patience and understanding they show us consistently during these times."

Important safety information

Hydro One strongly urges people to take extra precaution near fallen power lines.

Even if a fallen wire seems dead, it can be dangerous.

People are urged to report to Hydro One the location of the fallen wires as soon as possible.

Touching a vehicle that is in contact with a power line can be fatal.

Restoring power to customers with customer-owned equipment Hydro One advises customers that their privately-owned electrical equipment may have sustained damage in this week's storm.

If you know that your customer-owned equipment is damaged, you will need to hire a qualified electrical contractor to undertake necessary repair work who will then arrange for the required Electrical Safety Authority (ESA) inspection and Hydro One reconnection to restore your power.

For the most recent information on power outages, click here.

Hydro One owns and operates Ontario's 28,400 kilometers high-voltage transmission network that delivers electricity to large industrial customers and municipal utilities, and a 122,000 kilometre low-voltage distribution system that serves about 1.3 million end-use customers and smaller municipal utilities in the province.

Hydro One is wholly owned by the Province of Ontario.

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