Many Peterborough residents still waiting for electricity days after severe ice storm

Tens of thousands of Peterborough residents remained without power Tuesday morning (April 1), as the city continues to clean up from the weekend’s devastating ice storm, which felled tree limbs and knocked down power lines across the region.

Some 63,000 Hydro One customers in Peterborough city and county remained without power on Tuesday morning, a spokesperson for the power utility said.

“Given the severity and widespread damage caused by this storm, we expect restoration in the hardest hit areas to continue throughout the week,” Tiziana Baccega Rosa said in an email.

Hydro One’s power outage map showed dozens of power outages impacting neighbourhoods throughout Peterborough on Tuesday. Some of the outages aren’t expected to be resolved until Wednesday or later, according to the map, and some don’t have resolution estimates at all.

The City of Peterborough’s public works department received about 1,100 calls for service over a 24-hour period on the weekend and Peterborough Fire Services received over 700 calls for service, according to a press release issued by the city on Sunday.

In that same press release, Mayor Jeff Leal thanked Hydro One and public works employees for “working around the clock through this significant weather event.”

The city declared a state of emergency and opened several “reception centres” where residents without electricity could go to get warm and charge their devices. The reception centres are located at three municipal facilities: the Miskin Law Community Complex, the Healthy Planet Arena, and the Peterborough Sport and Wellness Centre.

The city also turned some transit buses into temporary warming stations starting Monday. Buses are parked “in areas with an identified need,” according to a city press release, including outside of some affordable apartment buildings owned and operated by the Peterborough Housing Corporation (PHC).

One of the buses is parked out front of the PHC building on Donegal Street where Carol Collins lives.

“The bus is here to keep us warm if we get really cold, because we have no heat,” Collins said on Monday afternoon. The bus was empty except for the driver when Currents stopped by.

“We’re getting tired of having no power. We’re hungry,” said Collins, who had gone outside in her wheelchair to have a cigarette. “There’s nothing much to eat. Nothing open.”

She said she hadn’t eaten since Saturday night, except for “a couple of bites of a peanut butter sandwich.” She said she was hoping one of her neighbours would pick her up something to eat for dinner.

Collins said despite her building not having power, the elevator was still operating, allowing her to get up and down in her wheelchair.

Travis Doak, the CEO of PHC, told Currents that many PHC buildings are equipped with emergency generator systems that were functioning as expected during the power outage. The warming buses were deployed “in cases where we are experiencing prolonged outages and there are no emergency generators,” he said.

A warming bus was also stationed out front of the PHC building where Jamie Fee lives, at 526 McDonnel street, on Monday afternoon.

Fee and her three children live in a 3.5-bedroom apartment on the basement floor. “It’s pitch black down there,” she said.

Fee said she and her children had slept in the living room to share heat during the power outage, “because it does get cold down there.” But for Monday night, the children were headed to their grandma’s house near the hospital, where there is power, Fee said.

Fee said she was hopeful the power could come back by Monday night or Tuesday morning, but also noted that the power restoration estimates on the Hydro One website had already been pushed back at least once.

Fee said she was more prepared for this storm, after living through the 2022 derecho windstorm that caused widespread destruction across Peterborough. She made sure to buy ice and candles and other supplies when the ice storm was first forecasted last week, she said.

Doak said PHC staff have performed wellness checks on vulnerable residents and relocated some to temporary accommodations. He said no PHC buildings sustained significant damage in the storm, but it will take weeks to cleanup PHC properties.

The city started running a shuttle bus from downtown to its reception centres on Monday afternoon, as Peterborough Transit service remained completely suspended following the storm. Partial transit service was restored late Monday afternoon.

Emma Stephenson waited for the shuttle bus across the street from city hall on Monday afternoon. She’d spent the last two nights sleeping under five blankets to try to stay warm, she said, after the storm knocked out power to her downtown apartment building on Saturday.

By Monday, she said it looked like electricity had already been restored to much of her neighbourhood, but her building was still cold and dark. “I know they’re doing what they can, but it’s frustrating when it’s like everybody else around you has power,” she said.

It was a struggle for Stephenson to get to any of the few stores and restaurants that were open after the storm to get food, since she doesn’t have a car.

She had hoped to catch a bus somewhere on Sunday to grab a bite to eat, but found out after walking to the downtown transit terminal that Peterborough Transit was completely shut down. 

“There was no, like, physical poster or anything that said buses are canceled,” she said. “You would think that they’d know that people are like, not getting [cellphone] service and like, the data is not working.”

The city waited until 2 p.m. on Monday afternoon to begin offering the shuttle to the warming centres, long after the centres first opened on Sunday morning. Stephenson said there should have been a way for people like her who don’t drive to get to the centres sooner.

Business was brisk on Monday at Dreams of Beans Café — one of the only downtown establishments that was open. The café was packed all day with community members seeking warmth, food, Wi-Fi, and a place to charge their devices. 

“I’ve never seen so many people huddled over a power bar,” said the café’s owner, Andrew MacGregor. He said he loves seeing the café full, but wishes it wasn’t because of the ongoing emergency facing the city. “I wish we were huddling close and getting to know each other on better terms.”

The vibe at the Trinity Community Centre was calm and quiet as the sun set on Monday evening. A few dozen guests were hanging out and chatting as the light streaming into the former church hall’s south-facing windows waned and the space got darker and darker.

The Trinity Centre, which is operated by One City Peterborough, serves as a drop-in space during the day and a shelter during the night for people experiencing homelessness and other forms of marginalization.

Staff relied on battery-powered headlamps and flashlights as they began to transition the space from its daytime setup (mostly tables) to its overnight setup (mostly cots).

“The centre has stayed open the whole time but continues to not have power,” One City executive director Christian Harvey wrote by text on Monday afternoon. “Staff, community members and shelter residents have been incredibly dedicated and creative in making sure the space stays open and operational.”

When Sioux Lily Dickson woke up on Tuesday morning and still didn’t have power, her mind immediately turned to how she would keep the medication she needs for her Crohn’s disease refrigerated.

“I realized I can’t care anything about my food. I need to make sure this really expensive medication is cared for,” she said.

Hydro One texted an update early in the morning saying her power likely wouldn’t be restored until Thursday. Luckily a friend with electricity offered to pick up her prescription and keep it refrigerated.

The East City resident said she’s also been getting a lot of help from neighbours. The person who lives next door is sharing their generator, allowing Dickson to keep a small electric heater going during the day. Another neighbour brought her some chicken he’d barbecued.

“In East City, we still really have that kind of neighbourly thing,” she said. “Everybody on this block looks out for one another.”

But Dickson, a disability advocate, said she’s worried about other people with disabilities in the city who don’t have such supportive neighbours.

She said it’s been difficult for many people with disabilities to reach the city’s warming centres. And with the lack of internet service, many people don’t even know what services the city is offering, she said.

“There are tons of other people with disabilities who could access these things if they knew about them, if they had transportation to them, if they had somebody checking in with them,” she said. 

Baccega Rosa, from Hydro One, said crews have restored power to more than 667,000 across parts of Ontario hit by the storm since the weekend.

There were still 276,000 customers in the province without power Tuesday morning, she said.

“After most storms, we typically see damage concentrated in specific areas. This storm has been widespread with damage accumulating over several days,” she said. 

Hydro One workers from other parts of the province have been called in to help restoration efforts in the worst-hit areas, she said. 

Improved weather conditions on Monday made for better working conditions for crews. Ongoing freezing rain and precipitation had been impacting restoration efforts up until then, she said.

“Road access continues to be a challenge in the most impacted areas, along with safety concerns of tree branches and limbs coming down,” Baccega Rosa said. “It’s likely that as crews continue cleanup, they will uncover more damage and additional power outages. For remote areas, including customers who can only be reached by water, restoration may take longer.”

Hydro One is urging people to stay at least 10 metres away from fallen power lines. Downed lines can be reported by text to 92887 (WATTS) or Hydro One at 1-800-434-1235.