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High winds knock out power to over 50,000 Hydro One customers

Toronto, November 16, 2005 - The third major wind storm in less than two weeks has knocked out power to over 50,000 Hydro One customers across Ontario, mainly in the northeastern region. As of late Wednesday afternoon about 35,000 customers remain without electricity service, including 23,000 in the northeast. While the majority will have power by 10 p.m. tonight, about 4,000 could be out overnight. Hydro One expects full restoration by 6 p.m. Thursday.

Major 115,000 volt transmission circuits serving the city of Timmins were interrupted from 12:40 p.m. to 1:47 p.m. today as a result of the weather.

Starting early this morning and continuing throughout the day winds gusting up to 100 kilometres/hour have made power restoration extremely difficult. In many cases crews restored service only to see it interrupted again a short time later.

Hydro One has over 600 lines and forestry staff working on power restoration. As crews complete restoration in one area they are redeployed to other areas with significant outages such as the northeast. Lines staff will be working until late tonight. Emergency crews will be available throughout the night, and all staff will be working starting at 6 a.m. tomorrow.

On Nov. 6 storms with similar conditions inflicted substantial damage to the grid system resulting in power outages lasting several days. Last Sunday another wind storm cut power to thousands more customers, principally throughout the Georgian Bay/Muskoka area.

Updates will be provided to media throughout the evening. For the most recent information on power outages go to www.HydroOneNetworks.com.

The public is advised to stay away from downed power lines.

Hydro One owns and operates Ontario's 28,400 kilometre high-voltage transmission network that delivers electricity to large industrial customers and municipal utilities, and a 122,000 kilometre low-voltage distribution system that serves about 1.2 million end-use customers and smaller municipal utilities in the province. Hydro One is wholly owned by the Ontario 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. Our Web site is www.HydroOne.com.