Hundreds of thousands left in the dark.
Toronto Hydro reports that 250,000 people are without power in what they call the worst ice storm in the city’s history. It’s possible that many won’t have power back in time for Christmas.
Two hospitals have been affected by the blackout, while a major one is on emergency reserves.
Meanwhile, dense sheets of ice have locked up transit and closed off roads in Canada’s largest city.
Stretching beyond Toronto, the ice storm knocked out power to about 350,000 customers across the province of Ontario, and at least 45,000 homes lost electricity in Quebec, where six people have died as a result of the storm.
“This ice is not going anywhere”
Temperatures are forecast to plummet behind the storm front, leaving the coating of ice on power lines, trees, roads and sidewalks. “This ice is not going anywhere,” said Marie-Eve Giguere, a meteorologist based at Environment Canada’s Downsview office in Toronto. “It’s staying with us.”
For some, the storm is reminiscent of the 1998 “Ice Storm of the Century,” when 35 lives were claimed, millions of trees were downed and some eastern Canadians were left without power for more than a month.
The worst-hit areas are around the shores of Lake Ontario where ice accumulation on surfaces has reached 2 to 3 cm (¾ to 1¼ inch) in some locations – easily enough to topple trees and other vulnerable structures (but still less than half of recorded accumulations during the 1998 ice storm).
http://news.yahoo.com/insane-ice-storm-crippling-toronto-looks-202213800.html
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/five-things-to-know-about/article16083698/
Thanks to Caroline Snyder in West Virginia for these links