Ice falling in downtown Toronto adds to storm woes

Last Updated: Friday, March 2, 2007 | 4:42 PM ET

CBC News

Cleanup efforts were underway across Toronto and falling ice warnings were issued downtown Friday after a nasty winter storm dumped a slushy mix of snow and rain across the region.

The 100 metres between the skypod and the main observation deck of the CN Tower is coated with a thick layer of ice. Pieces are periodically breaking off and falling to the ground.
(Dwight Friesen/CBC)

City crews spent the day clearing catch basins, shovelling out snow, ice and litter, to drain the deep puddles on the streets, but ice tumbling from the roofs of downtown highrises added another element to the mix.

Toronto police were calling property managers asking them to clear ice off their buildings if possible.

"In a lot of cases, especially when it's falling off the glass or windows of their buildings, there's not much they can do," Toronto police Supt. Hugh Ferguson said. "Mother Nature has to take its course and hopefully melt the ice off."

Some sheets of ice are quite large, Ferguson said, adding that they can turn into sharp shrapnel when they shatter on the ground.

Streets closed

Mid-afternoon, Toronto police temporarily closed several streets, including several blocks of Front Street, Bremner Boulevard behind the CN Tower and Simcoe Street.

They also urged those travelling in much of the downtown core to be extremely cautious.

Blocks of ice from the 553-metre-high CN Tower were seen crashing onto the street.

Yellow tape cordoned off parts of sidewalks along Front Street to keep pedestrians under awnings and out of danger. Police shut down the street from John Street to University Avenue.

Officials urged both pedestrians and drivers to be cautious when travelling in much of the downtown core, in an area stretching from Yonge Street west to Spadina, and Dundas south to Lake Ontario.

Miller asks residents to help

Meanwhile, Mayor David Miller urged residents to do their part in their neighbourhoods to keep streets from flooding, such as shovelling out catch basins and breaking up fallen branches for later pickup.

Emergency workers direct people around downed power lines in the middle of a street.
(Jamie Strashin/CBC)

"That would really help us a lot," Miller told CBC News. "We have this odd condition of ice and melt at the same time."

In the early morning, Toronto Fire Services had told people to stay indoors because of downed power lines — an advisory Miller implied was perhaps excessive.

"I'm not going to second guess what someone does at 4:30," Miller said. "However, public safety co-ordination comes through, eventually, my office, and by 7 a.m., it was quite clear it was appropriate to ask people, if they could, to stay home, but the city streets were safe, except for the flooding risk, which was real."

A nasty triple whammy of snow, ice and rain weighed down tree limbs, causing them to fall or pull on hydro lines, leaving live wires dangling in some areas.

Hydro crews struggle to keep up

Cowan Avenue, which runs off King Street, was typical of many areas in Toronto, with two giant trees fallen, pulling down lines and cutting electricity in the area.

Almost every part of the city was affected, a Toronto Hydro official said, with heavily treed areas hit hardest, including parts of Etobicoke, Scarborough and Forest Hill.

Toronto Hydro crews worked through the day and expected the power to be back on in most of the city sometime in the late afternoon.

Up to 30,000 customers were believed to be without power in Toronto, hydro officials said, and some may not have electricity restored until Saturday.

Across the province, Hydro One said as many as 80,000 homes are in the dark, with the largest blackout areas including Newmarket, Markham, Thornhill and areas east of Lake Huron and Georgian Bay.

The utility said crews are having trouble reaching some of the downed lines, but expect the lights to be back on for all customers by Saturday.

Two deaths blamed on weather

The treacherous weather was blamed for hundreds of accidents across southern Ontario and the deaths of at least two people.

A collision between a car and truck on an icy, snow-blown road northwest of Kitchener killed two children, aged six and seven. Their mother was in critical condition.

The storm swept into southern Ontario Thursday from the U.S. Midwest, where tornadoes killed at least nine people. The system is moving east into Ottawa and Montreal, and is expected to hit the Atlantic provinces later Friday.