Flood in Toronto Hydro facility cuts power to the city

by Amy Judd | January 15, 2009 at 07:59 pm

739 views | 24 Recommendations | 16 comments

UPDATE: 9:06pm PST

A flood at a Toronto Hydro Facility has cut power to a major part of the city. Subway lines have also been closed down.

Power is out from Jane St. to Spadina Ave. and Queen St. to St. Clair Ave., said Staff Sgt. Devin Kealey.

The flooding apparently happened right before 10 p.m. in a facility on Dufferin St., just north of Bloor St., short-circuiting the power system.

As of 11:15 p.m., there were several repair trucks working outside the station. One worker at the scene said he expected crews would be working to restore power throughout the night.

"We've got all sorts of grief. Traffic lights, houses, everything," Kealey said.

A substantial part of Toronto is without power this evening as temperatures drop to minus 15 and the city is plunged into the dark.

Much of Canada is in the midst of a deep freeze right now, brought on by an Arctic air mass that has brought freezing temperatures down on the country.

In Saskatchewan, Manitoba, northern Ontario and much of Quebec, residents were warned by Environment Canada that wind-chill will drag down temperatures down to between -40 and -50 C.

In Toronto, the temperature felt like -24 on Thursday morning.

Even into Atlantic Canada, residents were bundling up as the mercury hovered between -20 and the mid minus thirties, with wind-chill factored in.

1 See all footage | View Slideshow

Share: email story | add to any | | facebook | stumbleupon

recommend This comment thread is now closed

Paschen

at 20:31 on January 15th, 2009

That is not good at all. Why did that happen.

Blue Crush

at 22:13 on January 15th, 2009

That is a very large part of downtown! I'm sure glad I'm north of St. Clair, cause I have electric heat, and it's V E R Y cold outside!

The outage affects approximately 22,000 hydro customers. The power outage was caused by water main break and Toronto Hydro is working on restoring power.

Further information from TTC will follow early in the morning as to whether or not subway service will resume in the morning on that stretch of subway.

TTC says they've shuttlebus service running right now. Here's local links for updates - CityNews, and CP24 .

Rachel Nixon

at 22:29 on January 15th, 2009

Many thanks for the update Blue Crush.

Rachel Nixon

at 23:08 on January 15th, 2009

There's liveblogging of the power outage on Torontoist.

Iffy (not verified)

at 01:59 on January 16th, 2009

Toronto's infrastructure has been falling apart for years. At the end of the 80s, Toronto was a city with unrivalled prosperity and civic energy: a very diverse city that was culturally vibrant and economically rich. Flash forward to now, and Toronto is a mess: expensive condos go up while the city's infrastructure falls down. The city now has the look and feel of many third world cities, where the wealthy hide in their highrises and look out at the decay around them.

Rob Walker

at 04:05 on January 16th, 2009

As I was lying in bed trying to figure out how I would get to a part of the city that has power and internet in the freezing cold, the lights popped back on.

Weird timing, the power shut off just after the new episode of supernatural finished airing and turned back on right before my shift started!

Amy Judd

at 10:40 on January 16th, 2009

A sign that you were never meant to miss work... :)

Blue Crush

at 04:55 on January 16th, 2009

CP24 is reporting that Toronto Hydro outage to last until 10 PM tonite. All schools within that boundary closed, TTC only running 40 shuttlebuses. Mayor speaking at 8:00 AM from City Hall.

Jordan Yerman

at 04:59 on January 16th, 2009

Lots of schools are closed today: as per the boundaries listed above:

St. Clair to Queen St.; Spadina to Jane St. (All 24 schools within that boundary are closed)

Barry Artiste

at 07:35 on January 16th, 2009

And Freezing weather, with no power makes Vancouver more attractive every day

Amy Judd

at 10:39 on January 16th, 2009

Thanks for the updates here everyone! I'm glad that things seem to be better now.

Blue Crush

at 11:40 on January 17th, 2009

You're welcome. That figure of 22,000 was way off, of course, I knew when I was typing it. It was more like 100,000 account holders, or 1/4 million individuals. There are a lot of multi-family units within those boundaries.

tallison

at 08:39 on January 17th, 2009

I liked the post in the sense that I fel myself deep overthere as belonging to the place. I think conventional objects and methods should not be altogeather discarded. One day we may realise the fact painfully.

Yellow Guitar

at 16:49 on January 18th, 2009

Hang in there T.dotters. Glad the lights and heat are coming back on. Remember the last time you guys blew the lights out in the summer of .... whenever it was? Very eery seeing all those millions in the dark. But at least it was warm. Maybe we should all turn on our fans out here on the prairie and point 'em at you folks - send down a little Chinook warmth eh. Cheers.

eric laton (not verified)

at 14:24 on January 19th, 2009

that was a waist of precious time

Canada insurance (not verified)

at 16:54 on January 21st, 2009

Maybe I am a bit strange, but I think I enjoyed it at least a bit. Walking the completely dark streets, no adverts, no loud TVs and music from bars - it was relaxing. Like in some post apocalyptic movie. But yes...when I returned it was pretty cold! :)

Lorne