Tens of thousands remain without power after eastern Ontario ice storm

Tens of thousands of people remain without power south and west of Ottawa days after a powerful weekend ice storm blew through the region.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Hydro One is reporting about 30,000 customers remain without power in eastern Ontario. Most customers in the Tweed area are still out.

Some of the worst-affected areas are:

• About 16,300 customers in the Tweed area, with the last expected to be restored by Thursday at 11 p.m.
• About 8,200 around Bancroft expected to all be back by 11 p.m. Thursday.
• About 2,700 around Kingston expected to all be back by midnight Tuesday into Wednesday.
• About 2,300 around Trenton expected to all be back by midnight Wednesday into Thursday.

There may be areas that are back on sooner than others. Check Hydro One's website or call 1-800-434-1235 for specific information.

Most of the damage was caused by falling tree branches that pulled power lines down to the ground, said Hydro One spokesperson Tiziana Baccega Rosa on Sunday afternoon.

"The second wave [of the storm] came through and created additional outages," Baccega Rosa said. "In addition, there's access issues … there are trees just littering and blocking roads that are impassable until that is cleaned up."

There were about 85,000 local customers out as of Monday morning and 60,000 that afternoon.

Organizations such as Emergency Management Ontario have advice on how to manage power outages. The South East Health Unit has food safety guidelines after power is restored.

CBC Lite is a low-bandwidth version of this website that can help you stay informed.

35 hours of ice

Environment Canada first started talking about a potential ice storm last Tuesday and issued freezing rain warnings across the region Friday. The warnings began to lift at around 11:30 a.m. Sunday, starting with communities along Lake Ontario.

The region stretching from Lake Simcoe in southern Ontario to north of Kingston was hit the hardest by the weekend's wild weather, said Jean-Philippe Bégin, a meteorologist with Environment Canada.

"They got about two to three centimetres of ice accretion in those places," Bégin said Sunday afternoon.

Freezing rain fell on Trenton for about 35 hours, according to Environment Canada data.

Michael Oulton saw the danger of these ice-laden trees first-hand, rushing outside his home in Kingston to help his neighbour after he was hit by a branch that had buckled under the weight.

"I could hear my neighbour scraping his windshield, and all of the sudden [I heard] the big snap," he said. "I think he's going to be OK, but it happened in a heartbeat."

Kingston was one of several eastern Ontario communities to declare a significant weather event during the storm, advising residents to be extra careful and reminding them that road and sidewalk maintenance may take longer than usual.

In a news release Sunday, the city said that "multiple power lines" were down and that crews were working hard to clear debris and restore power.

Anyone who came across an unattended downed power line should stay back at least 10 metres and call 911 to report it, the city said.

On Tuesday, Quinte Conservation temporarily closed its conservation areas for cleanup.