Sudbury Hydro crews still down south helping to restore power

The six Greater Sudbury Hydro staffers who spent the Easter weekend helping to restore power in the Toronto area will be there a little longer.

In a release Monday, Sudbury Hydro said the powerline electricians who were supposed to return Monday will be there for a few more days.

Widespread damage to powerlines and poles during last Thursday’s storm triggered a call for assistance from Hydro One, and Greater Sudbury Hydro was among several utilities to send help, under an agreement in which they help each other when they can when a crisis hits.

“If we can help another utility, we do,” GSU Board Chair Mark Signoretti said in a news release. “In past crises, we’ve sent crews to help in several areas of the province, and even to the U.S. You never know when we might need extra people and equipment to repair mass damage in our own service area. ”

The six linemen have been working in the Alliston area since Friday. They have been asked to stay longer as a significant amount of work still needs to be done to restore everyone’s service.

“We now are expecting the guys to return mid-week, but that’s a bit of a moving target,” Wendy Watson, the GSU's director of communications, said in the release. “They are reporting that a lot of poles and lines have been damaged in rural areas which have low population density, and that takes a lot of time to repair.”

The crews took one double-bucket and two single-bucket trucks with them. It is standard practice that all costs for staff and equipment are covered by the utility which requested aid, in this case, Hydro One.