Update at 3:45
Sudbury Hydro and HydroOne are both reporting that power should now be restored to all customers in the Greater Sudbury Area, save for 807 Hydro One customers in the Rayside, Blezard, Balfour and Snider areas.
The main library branch has announced that they have re-opened.
Updated at 3:27 p.m.:
Greater Sudbury Hydro now says power has been restored to about 40 per cent of its customers.
Updated at 3:14 p.m.:
Greater Sudbury Hydro (GSH) is still trying to restore power to thousands of people in Greater Sudbury this afternoon.
“Greater Sudbury Hydro is actively trying to reroute power to customers affected by this afternoon's power outage,” the utility said in a release issued just after 3 p.m. “It is a ‘block-by-block’ effort that will take some time, and complete restoration may not be possible until Hydro One resolves their supply issue.”
The utility explained that a 230 KV transmission line belonging to Hydro One that supplies Clarabelle Transmission Station has suffered a fault and crews are actively trying to resolve the problem.
“Greater Sudbury Hydro distributes electricity from that station through the West End, South End, Copper Cliff, and a large portion of the downtown area,” said spokesperson Wendy Watson. “Many areas served by Hydro One are also without service.”
She said at least 15,000 GSH customers were affected at the peak of the outage, with power now restored to 10 to 15 per cent of them.
“Those efforts (to restore power) will continue, though it is not possible to give any estimated length of time to total restoration,” Watson wrote in a release.
Weather probably played a significant role in causing today's outage.
According to Hydro One's Sudbury Operations Centre, some 12,870 of its customers have been affected by the outage.
Those customers are in the following areas:
- Blezard
- Waters
- Rayside
- Eden
- Wisner
- Morgan
- Balfour
- Chelmsford
- Azilda
- Hanmer
- Snider
Updated at 3 p.m.
Due to a power outage at its Sudbury campus after this afternoon's thunderstorm, Collège Boréal is closed for the day.
“We have just made the call, and we are closing the college,” said college spokesperson Josee Campeau-Rousselle, who said the power went out on campus around 2:15 p.m.
Updated at 2:33
Greater Sudbury Utilities is reporting power has been restored to most of Gatchell and the South End. The utility is still working on restoring electricity to other affected areas. About 15,000 were without power, about 10 per cent of which now have power.
Original story:
Power outages are being reported in New Sudbury, Lively, the west end of the city, and other parts of the city as an intense afternoon storm pushed its way into the region.
On Twitter, Greater Sudbury Utilities (GSU) said the weather caused a power outage at Hydro One’s Clarabelle Transmission Station.
“A widespread power outage is affecting a significant number of customers in the City of Greater Sudbury is likely weather-related,” the GSU said in a news release at 2:18 p.m.
“Hydro One has lost power to the Clarabelle Transmission Station, which feeds Greater Sudbury Hydro's distribution stations in the West End, Copper Cliff and the good portion of Central Sudbury.
“We successfully rerouted power to HSN within minutes, and are now trying to reroute power to as many customers as possible. Total restoration time is impossible for Greater Sudbury Hydro to predict as we do not know where Hydro One's transmission problem originated. Both utilities are working to resolve the situation as quickly as possible.”
Greater Sudbury residents have taken to social media as well, sharing photos of the hail the size of dimes and a few nearly the size of golf balls.
Here’s a few of those tweets:
Hugh Kruzel
@HughKruzel
Cant believe size and intensity of hail @UpNorthCBC @jasonturnbull at 2PM here in New Sudbury
Sébastien Perth
@sebastienperth
Holy shit. Big hail falling fast. Canada geese flying in circles, don't know where to go.
Amy Henson
@scicommAmy
What does a #bluecoat do on days off? Collect #hail, of course!! #onstorm
