Power fully restored in Toronto's west end: mayor
Last Updated: Friday, January 16, 2009 | 6:55 PM ET
CBC News
A Toronto police officer directs traffic at Bathurst and Bloor streets as commuters line up for emergency bus service. (Dwight Friesen/CBC)Power was fully restored to Toronto's west end on Friday night after an almost 24-hour outage that threw a large section of the city into chaos during a cold snap.
"The power is back," Mayor David Miller said, while also warning people their homes may take some time to warm up.
Morning commuters stay positive as they wait for a bus at Bloor and Christie. Toronto Hydro spokesman Paul Reesor told CBCNews.ca power was fully restored to the remaining affected areas at 9:20 p.m. ET Friday.
The utility estimates about 100,000 people, or about 22,000 households, were affected by the outage, which began about 10 p.m. Thursday after a broken water main flooded the Dufferin substation and forced officials to cut power.
The water had to be cleared before crews were able to assess the damage and make repairs to station's four main machines, Reesor said.
"They've been working diligently to get this working," he said.
Despite the whir of electricity returning to the west end, resident Nicole Winer said her house was still frigid from almost 24 hours with no heat.
"You can bet our electric fireplace is on now," said Winer, wearing hand-knit socks and tucked under three thick blankets.
Subway services resumes
Passengers line up for shuttle buses at Keele Station on Friday after a power outage forced the Toronto Transit Commission to terminate subway service in the area. (Submitted by Mark Celejewski)By mid-afternoon the city's main east-west public transit artery — the Bloor-Danforth subway line — was back in full service after service along part of it was suspended because of the outage.
Warming centres were opened, schools were closed and public transportation was diverted in the west-end area bounded by St. Clair Avenue West to the north, Spadina Avenue to the east, Queen Street West to the south and Jane Street to the west.
Reception centres for people to keep warm will remain open until midnight and are located at:
- Metro Hall, 55 John St.
- York Civic Centre, 2700 Eglinton Ave. W.
- JJ Piccininni Community Centre, 1369 St. Clair Ave. W.
- Castleview Wychwood Long-Term Care, 351 Christie St.
- Memorial Community Centre, 44 Montgomery Rd.
- Harrison Pool, 15 Stephanie St.
- Trinity Community Recreation Centre, 15 Crawford St.
The city also has opened a centre where residents can stay overnight if their homes are too cold to stay in tonight, City of Toronto spokesman Kevin Sack said.
The centre is located at the Parkdale Collegiate Institute at 209 Jameson Ave.
Older people or people with disabilities who require assistance may call 416-392-9391.
Parked cars slowing traffic
John Ward waits in an emergency warming centre at the Castleview Wychwood Long-Term Care centre. Moments earlier, he had received word that his power was restored. (Dwight Friesen/CBC)Schools that didn't have power were closed, but the situation was confusing. It was recommended that people try to contact individual schools to find out whether they were without power.
City officials said there were no reports of an increase in crimes during the outage, but police would maintain increased patrols in the affected areas.
Police asked people to move parked cars off of main roads to let traffic pass. Police said parked cars were slowing traffic already been thrown into confusion by traffic lights that weren't working.
Subway service on part of the Bloor-Danforth line was shut down for hours because of the power problem.
The Toronto Transit Commission said its trains could move, but it didn't have backup power to light the subway platforms.
Shuttle buses made a valiant attempt to move people along the affected route until full subway service resumed at about 2:30 p.m.
People were also warned to take extreme care with candles.
Extreme cold alert issued
Complicating the situation was the weather, since Toronto is in the grip of a cold snap, during which the city had already issued an extreme cold alert in order to try to get the homeless into warm shelters.
Temperatures dipped to –20 C on Thursday night and the high was –13 C on Friday.
All city facilities without power in the affected area, including community centres, libraries and daycares, were also closed.
