Ontario’s largest electricity provider says strong winds today could trigger more power outages as crews continue working to restore service to thousands of customers left in the dark after a winter storm.
Hydro One says poor road conditions are slowing repair efforts in some areas. As of this morning, about 15,000 customers were still without power, according to the utility’s outage map. At the height of the storm on Monday, more than 60,000 customers had lost electricity.
The utility says ice buildup on tree branches caused them to fall onto power lines, leading to the outages.
In northern Ontario, travel remains difficult. Ontario’s road information service reports that a long stretch of Highway 11 between North Bay and Hearst is still closed, affecting hundreds of kilometres.
Environment Canada has also issued advisories for blowing snow and snow squalls across parts of southwestern and northern Ontario. Some areas could receive up to 50 centimetres of snow over the next few days.
