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May 25, 2022 • 59 minutes ago • 9 minutes of reading • Join the Giant Tree Damage Home and Car on Kilborn Avenue in Alta Vista during Saturday’s storm. On Wednesday, drivers stopped to take pictures of the unusual sight while an insurance appraiser wrote a report. Photo by John Wheeling / Postmedia
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55,000: the number of people in Ottawa without electricity on Wednesday at noon. 125,000: Number of people whose power has been restored 200+: Number of damaged poles that need to be replaced Key news: The city will cancel the cleaning update at 4 pm; Most schools in Ottawa have reopened, but buses are not running; Green bits for spoiled food continue in the hardest hit neighborhoods
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The French Catholic School Board in Ottawa said all its schools would reopen on Thursday, except for the following three schools, which are without power: Laurier-Carrière, Sainte-Bernadette and Terre-des-Jeunes.
The Ottawa-Carlton School Board has also expanded its list of schools that will open on Thursday. All OCDSB schools that opened on Wednesday will open on Thursday, the board said. In addition, power has been restored at the Family Reception Center, Carleton Heights, Crystal Bay, Glen Cairn, Pleasant Park, Queen Mary, Regina, South March, Stittsville PS. OCV Secondary will also be open.
The transportation body, which provides school buses to both the Catholic Council and the Ottawa-Carlton School Board, will begin providing limited services on Thursday.
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Hydro Ottawa hopes to restore power to its 55,000 customers, who are still in the dark by the end of the day on Friday, but warn that a more severe weather forecast for Thursday could hamper recovery efforts.
At a media briefing Wednesday afternoon, Hydro Ottawa CEO Bryce Conrad said power had been restored to more than 125,000 of the 180,000 customers who were shut down by Saturday’s severe storm.
“For the other customers who are still without electricity, we know you are counting on us,” he said. “We know you are tired, frustrated, anxious and even angry. All I can tell you is that we work around the clock to restore power to every corner of our service area. ”
But even when power is restored, many homes and businesses have damage to their meters, hydraulic systems and extension lines that will need to be repaired before they can be safely connected to the grid. “That number could be literally in the thousands,” Conrad said.
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Additional workers arrived from Toronto Hydro on Wednesday and joined more than 250 workers already deployed to repair the power grid. Other crews came from Kingston and Brockville, and others will arrive Thursday from Cornwall and London, Conrad said.
“I can say with confidence that we expect the system to be fully operational by the end of the day on Friday. Unfortunately, the forecast suggests more gusts of wind and rain over the next few days, which may hamper these efforts, but we will work to the limit of safe operations to continue.
Environment Canada forecasts a 40% chance of precipitation on Thursday with a risk of afternoon thunderstorms and winds of 30 km / h with gusts up to 50 km / h. That could make it dangerous for crews, Conrad said.
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“The gusts of wind are not our friend,” he said. “If you’re in a truck with a bucket 60 feet up and you start getting gusts of 60 or 70 km / h, it’s not safe.”
Immediately after the storm, more than 700 intersections were left without electricity. That number has now dropped to about 75, and five of them, mainly along Merivale Road, will require extensive reconstruction, said Alain Gontier, general manager of public works for the city. The city uses 20 generators at major intersections that are still obscured.
In response to the complaints, the city asked Ottawa police to direct police to direct traffic to “some of the very large, challenging intersections,” Mayor Jim Watson added.
Help also comes with cleaning up fallen trees and debris, Watson said. The province is sending 10 four-member teams of firefighters from the Ministry of Natural Resources to help with the clean-up, which began on Saturday, he said. Watson said he was confident by Prime Minister Doug Ford that the province would cover the costs of cleaning up the storm.
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“It will take a few weeks,” Watson said. “We want to manage expectations. You will not see all this cleared up right away.
The city’s green bucket continues to help residents dispose of spoiled food. About eight tonnes of organic matter were collected on Wednesday.
All four Ottawa school boards opened schools on Wednesday with electricity, but those without electricity remained closed.
The Catholic School Board in Ottawa says only 14 schools will remain closed on Thursday, up from 21 the day before. Its two virtual schools will also resume classes on Thursday. Virtual students who do not have access to the Internet are not expected to attend.
The transportation body, which provides school buses to both the Catholic Council and the Ottawa-Carlton School Board, will begin providing limited services on Thursday.
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Canada’s post office delivers to the city of Ottawa and eastern Ontario, but warns that delivery may be delayed or affected where there are still inaccessible streets or power outages. “We apologize for the inconvenience and welcome the efforts of the hydro workers to restore the service and others to clean,” the agency said.
Twenty-six Toronto Hydro workers have joined the cleaning effort in Ottawa. Hydro Ottawa made the request through the Ontario Mutual Aid Agreement and Toronto Hydro sent workers on Wednesday.
“Toronto Hydro has made significant progress in response to the damage from the Toronto storm – including a large amount of wires removed and fallen tree branches,” Toronto Hydro said in a press release. “At the height of the storm, approximately 110,000 Toronto Hydro customers were without electricity. However, Toronto Hydro has already successfully restored power to more than 99.8% of affected customers and will continue to work around the clock to deal with emergencies and repair all other localized outages in the city.
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Ottawa Humanitarian Society is an organization that has been hit hard by the storm. The power has been cut off since Saturday, said communications manager Stephen Smith.
Smith said trees fell on the property, damaging electrical infrastructure as well as parts of the building. For the past few days, the building has been running at reduced power from their backup generator.
New adoption meetings are canceled until the power is turned on again, and many other programs such as behavioral and training classes are postponed.
“We hope to see the strength to return online before the weekend. We still have our pet food bank on Thursday.
“The power is definitely less than we usually have. The backup generator powers many parts of the building. Our intensive care unit, for example, feeds things like IV to make sure the animals get the care they need.
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“Animal care, in our accommodation center – where most of the healthy animals stay before they are moved to the adoption center – there is very little light, so our staff walk around with headlights and inspect the animals and feed them. . “
Smith said the Society is also unable to perform most of its regular operations other than sterilizing and castrating animals.
In the meantime. The crews of Hydro One turned out to take care of the animals themselves
Teams near Winchester were working on a damaged pole when they found two trapped baby owls. The birds were rescued and taken to the Wildlife Care Center in Ottawa.
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Capital of the Ward Earl. Sean Menard toured the damaged neighborhoods on Wednesday, knocking on doors and briefing residents with information he received Tuesday night from Hydro Ottawa’s chief executive. Like many of his neighbors, Menard’s own home was still darkened.
“These crises really affect people in different ways,” he said. “So, some of my neighbors are wealthy, they have generators, they have families and wealth to buy substitute food for what is wasted. It is obviously still an inconvenience, but other neighbors in the area, living in municipal housing, for example, have had to throw away a lot of their food and have no money to replace it.
Menard said some live without basic necessities such as flashlights and ice all week.
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“It was much worse for them, very difficult.”
Menard said he was told by Hydro Ottawa that they hoped to get …
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