Emergency Preparedness Tips for Winter Storm Season

TORONTO, Dec. 8, 2014 /CNW/ - As the anniversary of the 2013 Ice Storm approaches, Hydro One wants to remind customers of the importance of being prepared for an extended outage. The Company created an emergency preparedness video to educate customers on what they should have prepared in a 72-hour kit at home.               

"Our Grid Control Centre monitors weather across the province so that we can prepare and have crews in position to respond to any outages," said Tom Kydd, Vice President, Lines and Forestry, Hydro One. "While we do everything we can to keep the lights on and get them back on should they go out, we want to help educate our customers on what they should have on-hand in case of an extended outage as well as the outage notification tools available to them."

For outage updates, visit Hydro One's Storm Center or download the free mobile app available for smartphones and tablet devices. These tools allow customers to check the status of power outages anywhere in Hydro One's service area and receive helpful tips and news.

Recently, Hydro One announced the launch of a pilot of its Outage Notification tool. This new service allows Hydro One residential customers to register in advance to receive proactive, personalized text messages or email alerts about outages that may be affecting their homes, cottages, farms or small businesses.

Over 132,000 residential customers in the following areas are invited to register for the pilot through Hydro One's MyAccount portal for the new Outage Notification service: Alliston, Dundas, Orangeville, Bolton, Guelph, Thorold and Simcoe.

If the power system in your area is affected by bad weather, be sure to stay clear of any fallen power lines. If you spot a fallen line, keep at least 10 metres back, even if it does not appear to be live. Report it to the police and call Hydro One at 1-800-434-1235.  Safety is at the core of everything Hydro One employees do. Not only are our crews trained in First Aid, every Hydro One vehicle is equipped with a First Aid kit.

Hydro One delivers electricity safely, reliably, and responsibly to homes and businesses across the province of Ontario and owns and operates Ontario's 29,000 km high-voltage transmission network that delivers electricity to large industrial customers and municipal utilities, and a 122,000 km low-voltage distribution system that serves about 1.3 million end-use customers and smaller municipal utilities in the province. Hydro One is wholly owned by the Province of Ontario.

To embed the video on your website, use the following: <iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Mghrs9g37Fo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>  

SOURCE: Hydro One Inc.

contact Hydro One Media Relations 24 hours a day at 1-877-506-7584 (toll-free in Ontario only) or 416-345-6868. Our website is www.HydroOne.com.