It was a Christmas nightmare for thousands on the north shore of Lake Erie as they suffered without power and limited or no cellphone service for days while temperatures plunged into the double digits below freezing.
Wind velocity roared to more than 120 kilometers an hour causing snow squalls with whiteout conditions in Port Burwell and surrounding areas. The strong winds and cold temperatures of the storm that hit Friday combined to create wind chill values below –20 C.
An entire roof was lifted off Beach Patties, a Caribbean restaurant on Robinson Street in Port Burwell, and downed trees blocked emergency services and hydro crews.
“In the 10 years we’ve been here, I’ve never experienced wind that was that high,” Port Burwell resident Tracy Farmer said.
Her power went down Friday at 5 pm and wasn’t restored until late Monday morning.
Farmer said she endured the frigid temperatures indoors, wore two layers of clothing and a winter coat, and stayed in bed with three layers of blankets and a hot water bottle for three days.
She blames an outdated power grid that has been “an ongoing problem” in the beachside town of about 800 people.
“It’s definitely the infrastructure,” she said. “They want to grow the community, but we can’t handle more things right now. Our (electrical) infrastructure is maxed out. And that’s why we lose power all the time.”
Farmer praised Hydro One workers, who in some regions in Ontario walked, snowmobiled and snowshoed in to restore power.
“My hats off to the hydro people,” Farmer said. “They did amazing.”
As of late Monday afternoon, power had been restored to all but a few pockets of Southwestern Ontario that had gone dark during the storm, Hydro One indicated on its website.
The utility had reported about 56,000 customers in the province’s southern and eastern regions were without power on Friday.
“It comes down to access issues – roads were closed, period,” Hydro One spokesperson Tiziana Baccega Rosa said. “I can’t recall a winter where we had a significant storm like this and people without power for some time or road closures like that.”
Power blackouts remain prevalent in central Ontario, where they are expecting more snow, she said, adding Hydro One is working with the province’s emergency operations center to determine where roads need to be plowed to allow hydro crews in.
“We want our customers to know we are doing everything we can to reach them and we are not going to stop until everything is restored,” she said.
Ken Herron, owner of Ken’s Corner Store in Port Burwell, said he opened the store’s doors early Christmas morning and stayed open late to help community members get through the blackout by providing supplies and gas to those who had generators.
With debit machines and ATMs out of service, Herron and his staff let customers take what they needed on credit.
“We’re not going to let anyone freeze. If people need gas for their generators, I’m not going to say no because they don’t have cash,” he said.
Rosa said Hydro One is probing how it can “harden our system and make it more resilient” in the face of harsh weather associated with climate change.
“Sometimes that means taller, stronger poles,” she said. “At times it might be looking at underground options. It would depend on the community and circumstances.”
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STORM FALLOUT: Closed roads, stranded drivers, weather warnings
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Winter storm: White-out conditions, closed highways, stranded travelers