Winter storm leaves thousands powerless in Ont.

From:
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1070239913957_74/?hub=Ca
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Updated Sun. Nov. 30 2003 7:50 PM ET
Winter storm leaves thousands powerless in Ont.

CTV.ca News Staff

Thousands of Ontarians remained unplugged Sunday after a winter storm blew
through an area north of Toronto, sending trees crashing to the ground and
damaging power lines.

The winter blast that struck late Friday caused outages that at their peek
left about 80,000 people in the dark.

All but a few thousand customers in remote areas were expected to have the
lights back on Sunday evening.

"We have over 400 foresters and linemen out working today in areas affected
by Friday evening's and Saturday morning's wind and snowstorm," Carrie-Lynn
Ognibene, a Hydro One spokesperson, told Canadian Press.

Efforts to restore electricity had been hampered by poor driving conditions,
high winds and blowing snow.

"There continues to be some gusting wind and freezing rain in some areas.
This is always a bad sign when you're trying to get power back on," Ognibene
said.

"(The electricity) can go back on and then a couple of hours later we can
get calls that it's been knocked off again," she added.

The weather was not expected to cooperate with efforts to get electricity
flowing again -- forecasters predicted cold arctic air would blow into
southern Ontario Sunday night bringing snow gusts and damaging wind.

Nevertheless, Hydro One officials said service across the province should be
back to normal by Monday.