Downed trees and branches caused by Thursday’s ice storm left many people in the area without power and on clean-up detail over the long weekend and into this week.
There were numerous reports of downed wires, trees on power lines and flooding.
Mulmur Township road crews, firefighters and local residents worked all day Friday and Saturday to clear debris from roadways.
“We’re so treed here, it was a mess,” said Mayor Paul Mills adding that hydro poles were broken and transformers were down.
By Saturday evening, Mills said all Mulmur roads were passable, with the exception of 30 Sideroad, west of 5th Line.
“There was a lot devastation and there still is,” said Mills. “It’s going to be a long time getting it all cleaned up.”
He said people have been very understanding.
“Everybody pulled together, that’s the main thing,” said Mills.
The municipality opened warming stations on Saturday and Sunday where people could get a coffee, charge their cell phones and other electronic devices and get water for drinking and to flush toilets. Mills said one person took the opportunity to charge their electric wheelchair.
On Monday, Dufferin County opened a warming station at the arena in Shelburne where people could charge devices and have showers.
The county’s general yard waste collection begins in April but it is also waiving fees for downed branches and brush brought to the GFL Dufferin Transfer Station until Saturday, April 16.
“Hydro One crews cleared more than 50,000 trees, replaced over 180 poles, 41 transformers, 141 cross arms and kilometres of line to restore power to more than 125,000 customers after a daunting weekend of weather that brought freezing rain, lightning strikes, high winds and finally flooding. Customers kept the call centre very busy with 150,000 calls, an average of 35 calls per minute, across the five days.
The clean-up job will continue as trees and equipment weakened by the storm will continue to cause outages and crews will go back to spots where temporary repairs were made and bring them up to the full standard. Crews, many of whom have been away from their families since the outages began will head home once the work is done.
A workforce of more than 1,200 was out in force this holiday weekend, travelling from as far away as Sudbury and the Ottawa Valley to tackle a relentless rebuilding effort in weather that seemed to try a new tactic every day.
Other Ontario utilities joined Hydro One crews through mutual assistance agreements, including: Haldimand Hydro, Festival Hydro, Woodstock Hydro, Erie Thames Hydro, Niagara Peninsula Hydro, Ottawa Hydro, Brampton Hydro One, Peterborough PUC, Midland PUC and Sudbury Hydro.