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Hydro One crews still re-connecting customers

Toronto, November 15, 2003 - About 20,000 Hydro One customers are still without power this morning as crews continue to repair damaged lines and broken poles after Thursday's severe windstorm. A majority of these customers should have power by 6 p.m. today while water access and isolated customers might not have service restored until Sunday.

As customers are restored to power, crews are moving to hardest hit areas to speed the recovery. Priority areas are Walkerton, Stayner, Penetang, Barrie, Huntsville, Nipissing/North Bay, Minden, Arnprior, Bancroft and Cobden.

At the height of the storm on Thursday over 160,000 Hydro One customers were out of power. Hundreds of poles were snapped, many kilometres of conductor and other electrical equipment such as insulators, switches and transformers were damaged and broken. Much of this devastation was in off-road, hard to reach locations.

Over 2,500 Hydro One staff have been involved in the restoration effort assisted by staff from other utilities who have responded to our requests for help.

Hydro One Networks owns and operates the province-wide electricity high voltage transmission network and largest low voltage distribution system in Ontario that serves over one million end-use customers. Hydro One is wholly-owned by the provincial government.

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For more information, contact Hydro One Media Relations 24 hours a day at 1-877-506-7584 (toll-free in Ontario only) or 416-345-6868.