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City urges caution when walking near trees due to storm damage

City crews are working hard to ‎clean up from the ice storm, but it will be weeks before they can get to all the damaged trees
BarrieToday Staff
ice 7 pointz tree and wires
Poyntz Street closed due to downed wires and branches. Sue Sgambati/BarrieToday.
BarrieToday received the following notice from the City of Barrie regarding tree damage from the recent storm.
 
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City crews are working hard to ‎clean up from the ice storm, but it will be weeks before they can get to all the damaged trees.
 
Please be extremely careful walking under or near trees. There are over 200 service requests with roads, parks and fleet in the queue.  
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Priority right now is to push trees off the roads - staff will be back to clean up, but it ‎may take weeks. Once the roads are clear they will move into parks.
 
Residents are being reminded to not clean up trees on City roads/property, and they are encouraged to call the city hall line 7057264242 and press zero to report trees that are on roads, or are the City's trees. The City does not clean up private trees.‎

The following is a news release from PowerStream regarding efforts to restore power:

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PowerStream’s restoration efforts in Barrie/Simcoe County continues

Although PowerStream has been making progress in restoring power to Barrie and Simcoe County customers impacted by an overnight storm that hit the area Thursday afternoon, windy weather with icy conditions slowed the utility’s efforts to get all customers restored as was previously expected.

As of Friday afternoon, 9,800 customers in New Tecumseth, 2,700 customers in Barrie and 460 customers in Thornton were still without power.

There were also several other small scattered outages in other parts of Simcoe County.

PowerStream continues to work with Hydro One to restore power in the New Tecumseth and Thornton areas.

It also has crews removing trees and branches from the powerlines in Barrie where many customers will continue to have their power restored through the late afternoon and into the evening.

Officials at the utility anticipate power restoration to occur as follows:

  • Barrie – estimated time of restoration for most customers is 12 midnight

  • New Tecumseth – estimated time of restoration for most customers is 7 p.m.

  • Thornton – estimated time of restoration for most customers is 7 p.m.

The power outages were the result of freezing rain with significant ice accumulation, combined with wind, bringing down trees and branches on powerlines.

This, along with a loss of supply from Hydro One for similar weather-related issues, caused more than 32,000 PowerStream customers to be without power at the height of the storm.

In the meantime, those who are still without power are encouraged to remain patient and to check on relatives and neighbours who may require assistance.

Customers are also encouraged to call 1-877-963-6900, visit www.powerstream.ca or follow @PowerStreamNews on Twitter for the latest updates on the company’s power restoration efforts in Simcoe County.

The storm that swept across Ontario Thursday and Friday caused power outages for hundreds of thousands electricity customers in the province including 100,000 Hydro One customers.

ABOUT POWERSTREAM

PowerStream is a community-owned energy company that provides power and related services to more than 375,000 customers residing or owning a business in communities located immediately north of Toronto and in Central Ontario. It is jointly owned by the Cities of Barrie, Markham and Vaughan.