Bitter Ice storm Freezes Toronto, city wide power Outage and Delay Holiday plans

Bitter 

Toronto crews cleaning up damages caused by ice storm

This Holiday season, thousands of families across Toronto may be spending Christmas and perhaps the new years in the dark due to the city wide power outage caused by a rare ice storm. The Ice storm shadowed the southern and Eastern part of Canada in thick layers of ice, wrecking holiday plans of thousands. The Ice storm was the caused from the heavy doze of freezing rain that continuously poured through out Saturday night. On Sunday, 400,000 people across the city woke up with no power in their homes, leaving them in the dark and stranded in their cold homes. The rare winter storm has turned streets and sidewalks into rice, snapping trees and sending massive chunks of branching into power lines, disrupting electrical services across the Greater Toronto Area. The Extreme weather has also crippled the Toronto public transit system, causing the cancellation subway lines, making it difficult for commuters to travel around the city. Toronto Hydro CEO, Anthony Haines, described the ice storm, saying “It truly is a catastrophic ice storm that we had here, probably one of the worst we have ever seen.”

The Heavy Ice storm that has left Toronto Hydro’s customers without power is also responsible for the high rise in Carbon Monoxide related emergency calls and Carbon Monoxide related deaths in the city. Many people who were left without power since Saturday scramble to stay warm while risking their lives in the process. A fifty five year old man and his seventy two year old mother died of inhaling carbon monoxide gas when the gas managed escape into the living room from the garage where a gas-power generator was running to heat up the home. Emergency teams where also called upon another carbon monoxide poisoning today, this Christmas Eve evening. The Two females that inhaled the gas where taken to a Hospital from suffering from the exposure through a charcoal barbecue that was kept on to heat up their house. Yesterday, four adults and two children were also rushed to a hospital from their Danforth home after trying to use charcoal barbecue to generate heat for their cold homes. The desperate need to keep warm had also cost a Scarborough resident their homes when Flames blazed through the roof of the home over night, causing sever damage to the home.

 The Ice storm that glazed through the city did not only leave thousands of Toronto resident in the dark but also ruined holiday travelling plans of many preparing to leave the city in time for Christmas. Many travellers were warned to check their flight status before leaving for the airport in case their flight gets cancelled. The unsafe weather condition has caused many flights to be cancelled, leaving thousands of passengers stranded and facing major delays at the Toronto’s Lester B. Pearson Airport. More the 204 flights were cancelled at the Pearson airport. The rash number of delays is caused by plane that needed to be de-iced from Saturday freezing rain for safety purposes. But many travellers are anxiously waiting to get homes in time for the holiday to meet their families. “I’ve got a little boy. He wants me home so I need to get home,” explained a stranded passenger at the Pearson airport who has been waiting fly home to his wife and four year old son in Newfoundland and Labrador in time for the Christmas. He is just one of many 107,000 stranded travellers whose holidays plan to meet their families and friends may be jeopardized by the extreme icy weather.

So far, Toronto Hydro has restored power to 215,000 victims just in time for the Christmas, but about 85,000 customers are still without power. Similar concerns among many is that their food they have bought for the holidays may spoil, making them to lose money. Ice storm victims are also urged to visit warming shelters across the city, which for a lot of families means spending the holiday away for home. For many families who do not plan on going to warming shelters, the reality is spending Christmas in the dark and possibly the New Years if power is not restored on time. Although this year ice storm was severe, it is nowhere near the harsh ice storm that slammed Ontario sixteen years ago, leaving approximately five million people across Ontario in the dark for up to two weeks. Large tree Branches still cover the streets of the city and cars are even damaged by large tree branches that fell on them. Clean up across the city is also beginning by city crew as Toronto Hydro crew battle to restore power in the entire city in time for the New Year. 

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