More than 200,000 without power following disastrous Ontario wind storm
Posted May 5, 2018 5:11 am.
Last Updated May 5, 2018 7:25 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO – More than 200,000 people are still without power across southern and central Ontario on Saturday morning following a windstorm that downed trees and power lines and left two people dead.
Environment Canada says wind gusted at close to 120 kilometres per hour on Friday in the wake of a cold front that moved across the province.
Hydro One, the province’s largest power utility, is reporting more than 200,000 customers affected by outages on Saturday morning.
Toronto Hydro says approximately 29,000 customers are without power as of 9 a.m. Saturday morning.
According to the utility provider, approximately 68,000 were without power in that city lost electricity at the peak of Friday’s wind storm. That compares to 44,000 customers who were without power during the ice and wind storm last month.
On Friday, police west of Toronto said two people died as a result of the winds.
Halton Regional Police say a tree fell on two men who were “working on tree servicing” on Friday afternoon in Milton, Ont., killing one and injuring the other.
And in Hamilton, police say a man who had been trying to clear downed power lines was found “in contact with live wires” on a road and died soon after emergency services arrived on Friday evening.
