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The Urban Jungle
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Toronto Icestorm of 2013

I have been lucky, I have not had a second without power. I live a tiny bit north west of Mount Pleasant and Eglinton. Mt Pleasant south of Eglinton keeps having power issues on and off.

My parents live on Wynford Hts (Don Mills north of Eglinton) and they're building has maintained power the whole time (even when some neighbouring buildings lost it!). In that regard we've been lucky, though my grandma's nursing home in the Finch & Bayview area is without power. :(

Yesterday sometime after 6 pm (when I went out) my Rogers cable and internet stopped working. Luckily I don't use them for home phone.
 
Here's a video of a streetcar trying to cross the Don River along Queen St E during the early hours of Sunday morning. There were some really spectacular light shows - this one was minor.

[video=youtube_share;4vvyYUYpxvQ]http://youtu.be/4vvyYUYpxvQ[/video]
 
Toronto wants to be a world class city but doesn't act like one. Pathetic display all around. Can't say I'm surprised
 
I had to drive to airport today. It's unbelievable how many trees were destroyed by this ice storm. I never seen so much destruction caused by a storm in this city before.
 
Everyone: Good information from all about Toronto coping with the aftermath of the ice storm and with power crews
coming in from around Canada and the northern US it should help get power restored despite the widespread damage
that this ice storm caused...

I remember T.H. on Long Island helping in the Sandy restoration in the Fall of 2012 and I would not be surprised
at all if LIPA/National Grid sends crews north - LIPA's system contract with National Grid is ending and New Jersey's
PSE&G is taking over the LIPA contract to provide power in 2014...National Grid was forced out after their Sandy
response but remembering how hard Sandy hit the NY-NJ area they probably did the best they could in the circumstances
but we all know that patience can be a virtue sometimes...

LI MIKE
 
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gabe said:
I had to drive to airport today. It's unbelievable how many trees were destroyed by this ice storm. I never seen so much destruction caused by a storm in this city before.
Click to expand...

Definitely so, the storm's done a number on the urban canopy. I hope that there are at least some resources dedicated to replacing some of the trees which have fallen.
 
crews are here now from Windsor and Ottawa......we are starting to see the problems that arise when people are without heat and light...they start to resort to things like generators and bbqs and the like and Toronto Fire responded to over 40 Carbon Monoxide issues last night.....outside the city there have been some deaths involving such equipment.

Interesting note is that the Sheppard Subway remains closed (may open later today).....it probably speaks to the importance of this transit line....I am pretty sure that if any of the other subways had been powered out there would have been a greater priority to getting it back online...Sheppard, however, is just not that crucial a piece of infrastructure in the daily life of the city.

EDIT: the 40 CO calls were within a single half hour period....the total overnight was 110 CO calls responded to by Toronto Fire.
 
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jje1000 said:
Definitely so, the storm's done a number on the urban canopy. I hope that there are at least some resources dedicated to replacing some of the trees which have fallen.
Click to expand...

I actually don't think it'll be that bad (sorry the impact to the tree canopy ... not people ...) I've been along many of the effected streets at least around Y&E (supposedly up there in terms of the impact), and for the most part its just large branches that have taken a hit. Not the entire tree, also generally its the old branches as well ... I wonder if in some ways this is actually GOOD for the trees ... and they'll of course regrow said branches.


Now the only problem is it could get worse, more wind / more broken branches - I do really hope it thaws out soon, it looks like this next weekend ? But it may not be enough (i.e. 2 days of 2 degrees temp).
 
Actually we already do ; - ) ... most new subdivisions in the 905 have buried lines.

Do most large cities have buried lines outside their core though ? (i.e. the inner / older suburbs) ?
 
taal said:
I actually don't think it'll be that bad (sorry the impact to the tree canopy ... not people ...) I've been along many of the effected streets at least around Y&E (supposedly up there in terms of the impact), and for the most part its just large branches that have taken a hit. Not the entire tree, also generally its the old branches as well ... I wonder if in some ways this is actually GOOD for the trees ... and they'll of course regrow said branches.


Now the only problem is it could get worse, more wind / more broken branches - I do really hope it thaws out soon, it looks like this next weekend ? But it may not be enough (i.e. 2 days of 2 degrees temp).
Click to expand...

The trees that are standing that lost two or more of it's largest limbs probably wont survive much longer. The trees wont be able to produce enough foliage to nourish the tree through the coming growing season.

The healthier mature trees that have lost lots of branches but still have it's largest limbs in tact should make a full recovery. The biggest mistake people make is they prune the tree back because it looks ugly. That will cause even more damage and stress to the tree. Remove broken limbs and leave the tree for at least two years before pruning it. It's surprising how tough trees are.
 
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