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Hydro One mobilizes to restore power to 90,000 customers in communities most affected by severe wind storm

September 24, 2006 — Severe winds gusting up to 90 km/hr that moved across parts of the province earlier today has resulted in approximately 90,000 Hydro One Customers losing power.

Hydro One crews and helicopters have been mobilized and deployed to assess and repair the damage resulting from the wind storm. Initial indications are that some customers in the most impacted areas may remain without power overnight and into the early week.

Initial reports indicate that the most impacted areas include:

Customers are advised that a planned outage to conduct maintenance work in the Minden area, that would have affected 15,000 customers, has been postponed as crews focus on returning power to customers affected the current outage.

"This is the third significant outage we have faced in as many months," said Myles D'Arcey, Senior Vice President, Customer Operations, Hydro One. "As always, we will deploy all available resources to the restoration effort so that we can minimize, to the extent possible, the impact of this recent outage on our customers. Again, we thank our customers for the patience and understanding they show us consistently during these times."

Important Safety Information

Hydro One strongly urges people to take extra precaution near fallen power lines. Even if a fallen wire seems dead, it can be dangerous. People are urged to report to Hydro One the location of the fallen wires as soon as possible. Touching a vehicle that is in contact with a power line can be fatal.

Restoring Power to Customers with Customer-Owned Equipment

Hydro One advises customers that their privately-owned electrical equipment may have sustained damage in this week's storm. If you know that your customer-owned equipment is damaged, you will need to hire a qualified electrical contractor to undertake necessary repair work who will then arrange for the required ESA inspection and Hydro One reconnection to restore your power.
For the most recent information on power outages go to www.HydroOneNetworks.com.

Hydro One delivers electricity safely, reliably and responsibly to homes and businesses across the province of Ontario and owns and operates Ontario's 28,000 kilometre high-voltage transmission network that delivers electricity to large industrial customers and municipal utilities, and a 125,000 kilometre low-voltage distribution system that serves about 1.3 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 and to make arrangements for photography, 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.