Hydro One expects to have power restored to about 99% of customers affected by last weekend’s storm by Friday evening but it could be days or even weeks for some of the most remote customers.
The utility said earlier Friday that about 61,000 customers are still without power across the province including dozens of small pockets of outages continuing in the Tweed and Bancroft areas.
Hydro One spokesperson Richard Francella says crews on the ground are indicating this is one of the most significant storms they’ve dealt with.
“In Tweed, for example, one crew member mentioned that it was easier to count the amount of poles still standing than those on the ground, so, we’re seeing significant damage. Almost 2,000 poles across the province.”
Francella says the level of damage means some customers in rural and remote island areas near Bancroft may be without power for several more days while it may be weeks before power returns to some of the most remote customers in the Mackie and Mazinaw Lake areas.
“They need to use specialized equipment. A number of these areas are on island locations. So looking at boats. And then, also in terms restoration, of getting up there, getting up the towers and the poles, they don’t have trucks available because they are on remote areas so they would have to climb those poles manually.”
About 3,200 power employees including Hydro One workers and crews from other provinces and the U.S. have been working non-stop.
