Hundreds of thousands still without power on third day of spring storm

TORONTO — Hundreds of thousands of people across Ontario are still without power on the third day of a spring storm after freezing rain-coated swaths of the province with thick layers of ice.

An outage map from provincial utility Hydro One shows more than 390,000 homes and businesses are without power this morning, and nearly 360,000 others are already back online.

Ontario Provincial Police say warming centres opened in Orillia and Tay Township, which are among the hardest hit areas of central Ontario.

The cities of Orillia and Peterborough, and the cottage country district of Muskoka, all declared states of emergency.

Environment Canada says freezing rain in areas across the province that saw alerts issued over the weekend is expected to ease this morning, but the agency warns the system is moving east.

The weather agency says Quebec, New Brunswick and parts of northern Nova Scotia’s mainland and Prince Edward Island are under freezing rain warnings this morning.

“At the very end of our driveway, we had a hydro pole completely ripped in half because trees went down and took the wires down,” said Janelle Baker, who lives outside of Bracebridge, Ont., and lost power early Saturday morning.

“Our driveway and our road are completely impassable at this point.”

Baker said she spent Saturday night listening to the sounds of trees crashing down.

“It’s just this intense creaking, and then falling,” she said. “It’s very eerie, almost. You can kind of hear it because we’re out by the water, too, so the ones coming down over the water were very loud.”

When she went outside on Sunday morning, she described the sight as “carnage,” as though a tornado had blown through.

“I’m originally from Nova Scotia, so I’ve seen a lot of pretty crazy weather events, but I’ve never seen anything like this ever before,” she said.

Kelly O’Loan in Barrie, Ont., was among those who got electricity back, but not before she spent hours manually bailing out her sump pump by candlelight.

“It was a very scary and treacherous night because you could hear the ice against the windows, and any time the wind blew just a little bit, you would hear things move and you’re just praying that the trees don’t fall,” she said.

Provincial police urged people to stay off the roads if possible, saying the melting ice had led to wet, slippery roads and localized flooding.

Police shared photos of powerlines hanging low, pulled down by the weight of the ice that coated them.

In Georgian Bluffs, Ont., along the Georgian Bay, provincial police said a tree fell onto the road and landed on live hydro wires on Saturday night, starting a fire.

A news release from the force’s central division early Sunday said there had been additional calls for service because of the weather, including injuries caused by falling trees.