Hydro One works to restore power following tornado in Essex County

TORONTO, June 7 /CNW/ - A tornado that knocked over trees and downed power lines Sunday morning in the Leamington area resulted in power outages to 4,500 local Hydro One customers. Hydro One crews worked throughout the night to restore power. About 2,300 customers in the area remain without power on Monday morning.

"We have deployed additional Lines and Forestry staff from adjacent locations into the Essex area," said Myles D'Arcey, Senior Vice-President, Customer Operations. "Our crews are working tirelessly to clean up the downed trees and repair the broken lines and poles so that the local community can get back to business as soon as possible."

About 150 Hydro One staff are working on the restoration effort including 80 lines maintainers, 30 damage assessors and 20 foresters. Approximately 70 poles and a significant number of wires are broken or damaged and need to be replaced. It is expected most customers will have power restored later tonight, although some customers may be without power until Tuesday afternoon.

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 123,000 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.

For further information:

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.