Ice storm knocks out power to thousands on Thunder Bay's south side
Thunder Bay Hydro crews say trees down on wires in various parts of the city
Power has been restored to thousands of Thunder Bay residents, according to the local utility.
The power went out Wednesday morning due to a large-scale outage on the south side of the city.
As of about 10:15 a.m. Wednesday, the outage, as shown on Thunder Bay Hydro's outage map, ran from the Harbour Expressway south to the Kaministiquia River. Power was restored about an hour later.
Expect majority of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/tbay?src=hash">#tbay</a> Northwood Westfort customers restored by 11:15 am. Crews responding to many 'trees on lines' in varied areas.
—@ThunderBayHydroA Thunder Bay Hydro representative told CBC that 4,000 to 5,000 customers were affected, and that crews were patrolling the area in an attempt to find the exact cause of the outage.
Thunder Bay Hydro said later Wednesday morning that the outage was caused by trees down on power lines in the area. The city remains in the midst of an ice storm that began overnight Tuesday.
Hydro spokesperson Eileen Dias said in some cases, the outages are due to damage to individual power lines leading to city homes. If power is out, hydro is asking homeowners to check their home's power lines, and report any damage to Thunder Bay Hydro.
Anyone seeing a power line down in a public area is asked to call 911.
Dias said later Thursday that, given the weather forecast, Thunder Bay Hydro expects to be busy overnight.
The utility is bringing on additional staff and resources in the form of local contractors with the proper certifications and equipment to conduct hydro repairs for the night.
Crews will be available for repairs as required Wednesday night and into Thursday morning.