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Even as much of Ontario has been hooked up to power, Premier Ernie Eves launched another plea for users, particularly in business, to conserve energy.
In a Saturday morning press conference, the Premier urged consumers and users to cut down on power use, looking to Monday as a "big test" on how the province will deal with struggling back to life after Thursday's massive power outage. Temporary blackouts rolled across Ontario on Saturday, leaving sections of the province's towns and cities without power again for up to periods of two hours. And the rolling blackouts would continue into next week, the province's energy minister warned, unless people agreed to switch off their electrical appliances now. "We're encouraging people to use as little electricity as possible," said John Baird. "What we are trying to avoid is any further power disruptions on Saturday. We can do that if we can conserve, but we are very close to meeting the electricity power demand for today and tomorrow." Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman said Toronto should be spared from the rolling blackouts, because it is the "engine that drives the whole province, the whole country in fact." Mr. Lastman wants the city, already battered economically by a deadly outbreak of SARS, to be operating at full capacity by Monday. But Mr. Eves said Saturday that there are some things he just can't do. "We supply the appropriate amount of power to Toronto Hydro and they decide what to do with it," he said.
The Premier challenged businesses to take responsibility, pointing to lit billboards in areas while in others, eldery citizens have to walk up stairways to access their homes. He specificially mentioned retail businesses, industries and office towers as main culprits of frvilous use. Meanwhile, Inviestigators in the United States pinned the massive power failure on three transmission lines in Ohio.
"Monday morning is going to be a big, big test," Mr. Eves said, noting that weekend power use is lower than on weekdays. "People can't be frivolous with their use of energy." Power returned to much of Ontario following the worst blackout in North American history, but electricity suppliers are warned of rolling outages over the weekend and into next week. "It's very aggravating... to go by a lit-up billboard when there are some people who still don't have the necesary power to do the very basic things," Mr. Eves said.
The premier said some local distribution problems are still resulting in outages to some jurisdictions. "I think by and large the the vast majority of households have power," Mr. Eves said. Hydro Ottawa said Saturday that it's close to full power, but says there's no guarantee that power will still be on all day. "It is important not to overload the electrical system," it said in a statement. On Saturday, the prime minister said he had "a long conversation" with United States President George W. Bush about handling the problem and while no answers have emerged, he's encouraged by how people have banded together in a bad situation. "Fifty million people have been involved in this problem, and what is great is the people have kept their calm and accepted the fate very graciously," he said. "You can't blame anyone. It happened."
Although there was still no clear explanation for why the blackout occurred, Mr. Eves said power was being restored faster than expected. The power was back online for more than 95 per cent of Toronto by 3 a.m. Saturday, according to Toronto Hydro. The utility said a flood at one station and a fire at another were responsible for the power outages in the two areas still without electricity. Mr. Eves also asked the province's 10 million residents to limit water consumption until the total power system was up and running, possibly by the end of the weekend. The pumps that bring water from Lake Ontario to reservoirs, and from the reservoirs to homes and businesses, use enormous amounts of electricity. Several units at two of the province's nuclear power stations — Pickering and Darlington — could be offline for days, he said, because they have to be brought back from the fullest stage of shutdown. The massive blackout affected most of Ontario and the entire eastern seaboard, including New York, Cleveland and Detroit. In all, about 50 million people in the two countries were affected, and more than 100 power plants were shut down. Energy Minister John Baird said Friday some communities will receive power quicker than others. "Each plant will take a different amount of time to get back up online, depending on their age, depending on their style, depending on their design, depending on how they're operated," he said. Much of Toronto's downtown core lit up suddenly around 5:30 a.m. Friday after most of the city had endured more than 12 sweltering hours without electricity, much of that time under an eerie and uncharacteristic darkness. Lineups formed at gas stations and grocery stores by 6 a.m. Many shoppers were stocking up on batteries, candles and non-perishable food, admitting they were totally unprepared for the long blackout. In Ottawa, the normally busy streets around Parliament Hill were practically deserted. "It's really dead," said Sara Choukri, an employee at a Lebanese restaurant. "It should be packed right now, but there's nobody here." Early Saturday morning, Hydro Ottawa announced that low demand for electricity had allowed it to restore power to all of its circuits. It warned that this could quickly change if consumers increased their power use and that rolling blackouts may still be necessary. If any of Hydro Ottawa's customers are still without power, they are asked to call the communications center at 738-6400.
On Friday the capital's government offices and large industrial and commercial power users were closed, but police, firefighters, ambulance dispatchers and workers at psychiatric hospitals and correctional facilities remained on the job. Back in Toronto, all clinics, surgeries and treatments were proceeding at three hospitals that make up Toronto's University Health Network on Friday, but the Hospital for Sick Children cancelled outpatient clinics and elective surgery. Toronto's widely used subways were also at a standstill and officials warned they might not move again until Monday. Buses crawled along the subway routes, crammed with passengers. Air Canada grounded all flights across the country, and stranded thousands of passengers, until late afternoon after backup power was lost to the airline's "nerve centre," said spokeswoman Laura Cooke. That's the operational centre where flights are planned, fuel is calculated for planes and flight crews are put together — and without it, the airline can't operate, she said. By 6 p.m., the airline said it was operating again, but on a limited basis. In a release late Friday, Air Canada said it planned to return to its normal flight schedule by Saturday evening, but anticipated that passenger volumes would be heavy over the next few days. Hours after the Thursday blackout, millions of people were left in the dark and without electricity as night fell. Looting was reported in some areas of the nation's capital, as well as Hamilton, Parry Sound and Toronto. Overnight there were two blackout-related deaths — a 15-year-old who died in a house fire and a man who was hit by a car following a street fight. With a report from Canadian Press |
