Toronto Icestorm of 2013

[NorthYorkEd]

Here in North York centre, our power went off around 10:30 PM Saturday night. Luckily, the Sheppard Centre mall is on the same feed as the Federal building across the street that houses DND and many other Federal gov depts, so I assume they benefited from some sort of essential services designation as their power came on sometime Sunday or early Monday. So at least we have had a warm place to go for food, coffee, and to charge phones and laptops.

Some of the streets appear to be restored as of this AM, such as Park Home and Beecroft, and Empress Walk is also now back on the grid as TTC has resumed service to NYC station. But a few intersections are still out, such as Elmwood and North York Blvd, and I assume any other side streets where the traffic lights are out. As service to Sheppard Line is due for noon, we are hoping the rest of this area comes back online with it.

Our power is still out, which is frustrating as we can see that others around us are getting their power back and will get first dibs on the fresh turkeys.

We figure one more night in the freezing candle-lit dark, then a Chinese restaurant for some dinner "A Christmas Story" style. Deck the hall with bowers of horry, indeed.

 

[jje1000]

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.

Some trees like Willows can lose most of their branches and do okay. There's a willow in my backyard that's lost around a quarter of its branches- I see it bouncing back this spring. No so much so for another, less resilient tree beside it- I think it won't make it past the next year.

 

[CN Tower]

Do you think its not time to start planning to bury our electrical infrastructure and avoid what happened here

Toronto ice storm leaves 230,000 without power
Toronto was hit with freezing rain and drizzle for more than 24 hours, causing a build-up of ice on trees that came crashing down on cars, homes and power lines
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-ice-storm-leaves-230-000-without-power-1.2473543

I predict this to be a major campaign issue in the next election.

 

[TrickyRicky]

Most of the West end of Downtown is OK but it's hit and miss. A good part of the Annex has no power for example. I haven't even seen a hydro truck drive by let alone anyone working on the impacted areas in the central city, so it will probably be a long time before the effected areas there see their power restored.

 

[PinkLucy]

I wonder how they decide where to deploy resources. We didn't lose power, no one in our area did. There was one transformer that blew, and the only apparent result was that one set of traffic lights was out. That was repaired yesterday. Why? Shouldn't the priority have been to get power in people's homes restored first?

 

[jje1000]

I predict this to be a major campaign issue in the next election.

Depends on whether or not media decides to rip into Ford, and how much people believe he is at fault for a lack of leadership.

Otherwise it may fade into the background.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Do you think its not time to start planning to bury our electrical infrastructure and avoid what happened here

Toronto ice storm leaves 230,000 without power
Toronto was hit with freezing rain and drizzle for more than 24 hours, causing a build-up of ice on trees that came crashing down on cars, homes and power lines
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-ice-storm-leaves-230-000-without-power-1.2473543

Then you'll get the complaints that the construction to do just that is taking too long, causing dust, disrupts business, and costs too much. (See St. Clair Avenue West.)

 

[CN Tower]

Depends on whether or not media decides to rip into Ford, and how much people believe he is at fault for a lack of leadership.

Otherwise it may fade into the background.

It's always been a wise idea but now there's urgency behind it.

Nothing to do with current mayor, just policy change going forward in light of this unmitigated disaster.

 

[BurlOak]

Then you'll get the complaints that the construction to do just that is taking too long, causing dust, disrupts business, and costs too much. (See St. Clair Avenue West.)

I understand that the problem on St. Clair was that some of the hydro decisions were made after the contracts were already awarded so that the costs and promised construction timelines were meaningless.

 

[James]

I've been in various parts of the city and it looks like a mixed bag with regards to which areas are back up or not. In some neighborhoods, one block will have electricity while across the street they'll be pitch black. Really random. Some areas, like in Markham, never lost power yet were hit with some pretty devastating fallen trees, creating quite a bit of damage and choas on the streets.

I had already planned a Christmas week getaway so I left town last night while my house was on its 2nd day with no electricity and the thermostat down to 11.5°C. I didn't stick around to find out what it dropped to in the -12°C temperatures that were expected overnight. Just as a precaution, I shut off the main water supply valve and drained all the water from the faucets and toilets to minimize any frozen water pipe damage.

I'm still checking the Toronto Hydro power outage map periodically but the progress is fairly slow and I'm not anticipating full recovery until end of this week. Stay warm, everyone.

 

[One Nut Kruk]

It is now time to push and push for the wholesale burial of our electrical infrastructure. Montreal and most of Quebec did the same after the 1998 ice storm and we should follow their lead.

There is absolutely no reason aside from typical Toronto penny-pinching and myopia why the bulk of our critical electrical infrastructure is dangling above rotting wooden poles. Not only is it disgusting to look at, but it is clearly a public safety issue.

I haven't had power since Sunday at 3AM. Our house is freezing cold, no fireplace, no gas stoves.. We have no way of doing anything. Thank God for friends and neighbours nearby who still have power, otherwise I'd be worried.

I wish. My neighbourhood is in the process of replacing our wooden utility poles with new wood utility poles. Gotta love this city.

 

[taal]

The cost would be ridiculous ....

The only way this wold work is when streets are re: constructed, at that point a new policy is put into place such that hydro is buried ... given the time it takes to resurface side streets maybe 100 years from now everything would be buried ... but this is the only realistic option by far !

 

[W. K. Lis]

I wish. My neighbourhood is in the process of replacing our wooden utility poles with new wood utility poles. Gotta love this city.

Burying it is "gravy", don't you know that.

 

[jje1000]

The cost would be ridiculous ....

The only way this wold work is when streets are re: constructed, at that point a new policy is put into place such that hydro is buried ... given the time it takes to resurface side streets maybe 100 years from now everything would be buried ... but this is the only realistic option by far !

I doubt it'll be the cost. There's enough money in this city to pay for it. It's about the political will to get it done, to think about long-term savings over short-term expenditures.

As long as we have Ford and his ilk in power, these things will only be considered gravy. I can already think of a way the Sun can spin this ('Downtown Pinkos Waste Money Burying Power Lines Purely for Looks').

 

[CN Tower]

I doubt it'll be the cost. There's enough money in this city to pay for it. It's about the political will to get it done, to think about long-term savings over short-term expenditures.

As long as we have Ford and his ilk in power, these things will only be considered gravy. I can already think of a way the Sun can spin this ('Downtown Pinkos Waste Money Burying Power Lines Purely for Looks').

Perhaps before this tragedy it would have been considered superfluous to do it for pure cosmetic reasons. I certainly would not have advocated for it with the current budgetary constraints that the city faces.

However, now that the beast has roared, very loudly, and we are looking at a civic disaster, it would seem to me that a capital expenditure program spread out over the course of many years would be a well received response.