Lucked out too. Stepped out to go to work around 11pm and my half of the street was lit and the other part (toward Ossington) was in darkness. Ossington, Christie & Bathurst stations were all on emergency power but the subway was still running.

#darkTO on Twitter was incredible to follow last night and still this morning. I'm in S.America but felt like I was there. People were telling personal accounts, TTC giving live updates, news organizations tweeting, people posting Flickr photos and links to video coverage, and offers of assistance and a generally positive tone throughout. As far ad I know, no grave consequences yet.

Now my concern is for my wine cellar. If it freezes I'll cry. Years of effort and irreplaceables may be lost. :(

back on (mainly) in the dufferin/bloor area

I can think of one solution. As long as you don't have anywhere to be today.

Jinkies! I live behind Keele Stn and our power never went out. Interesting.

cool pix

I'm out of town too... This Page was the top responce in (on?) Google.. Worried about friends who live at Ossington and Queen... south side.
City-tv site was sad but BT was fine.
Fingers Crossed.

Ryan,

After 11PM (and until 6AM) we have no support on citynews.ca. We did have some updates via Twitter. The truth is that the best way for people affected to get news was not the web or tv - it was the radio (and 680 did a hell of a job).

I left College and Dufferin at 8am - power is still out there. At what point should I be worrying about my pipes?

Power was still out when I left my freezing apartment Bloor and Dovercourt and hour ago. What a wonderful day for a walk to Bathurst station. I came into work just to get some heat and hot water.
I think the TTC did a great job, even if the shuttle buses were filled to capacity, I have to hand it to the streetcar driver I had this morning down Bathurst in dealing with people who thought they were heading to Islington and others who had no idea what was going on with the power outage.

I'm sort of close to Bloor and Runnymede and I didn't know about ANYTHING until I tried to get on the subway this morning. We were lucky not to lose our power. Always the last to know.

I don't see how that really makes sense. Take a look how quickly news spreads via twitter feeds. When Mumbai was under seige people were quite literally getting updates by the minute.

The advantage of the web over the radio is that you can pick and choose what news you want to see. If you turn on the radio a few minutes too late, you might miss an important news update which may not get repeated for another hour.

With the web, everything is laid out in front of you (well, should be on any well designed site) and you can pick and choose to read the headlines that of interest to you. There is no risk of missing information because your clock is 10 minutes slow.

The problem with citynews.ca is that editors and writers are choosing to submit four different top stories (and two web watches which may or may not link to the same story) on something that is completely irrelevant to 95% of Torontonians.*

That has little to do with limitations of technology, and more having to do with the ongoing problem of citynews trying to 'entertain' people with their headlines instead of informing people with them. Obviously a plane crash is exciting stuff, especially when the situation has played out like something from a movie, but at some point someone has to decide what is and isn't important to report on. Proper judgement is clearly lacking in this department.

*I'm flying to New York next month out of the Island Airport, so I'm about as relevant as it gets and I certainly don't need 4 separate articles on it, let alone ONE. Why would I get my international news from a Toronto news site? The header does say "Citynews: Toronto's News", does it not?

The problem with web is without power most people ain't gettin shyte. Atleast with a few batteries in a radio anyone can hear any updates. The big problem to me is the fact that TTC isn't updating any of the drivers. They're not sure what lines are running what aren't, its great TTC can send an update to individuals on Black Berries but the drivers are dealing with 99% of the other people. If you can afford a luxury blackberry you can probably afford to step out your house and get a cab anyway. Update the drivers so they can inform the public.

I got stuck right in the middle at high park and bloor. It was ungodly cold last night. But i got my power back at about 8 am this morning. The only saving grace of this is that work is also out of power so i got a day off :)

Your wine will be fine, you tool.

Heather-I live at Dufferin and Parr (between college and Dundas) and was informed by my landlord that power came back on at 8:30. I'd assume that includes your section, too, as I'm hearing it is coming on in blocks.

Thanks Liz!

power was still out when I left my place at ossington south of dundas at 9:45.

I spent the night braving the cold with a 6 pack of Corona and my special friend.

I live at Bloor & Lansdowne. Lost power last night at 10pm. Got in bed with what was left of my lap top battery at 11pm. Passed out at midnight. Woke up to my Blackberry alarm at 7am today with the cat around my neck. Temperature in the house had dropped from the usual 21 degrees (C) to 9 degrees. Showered in the dark with what was left in the hot water tank. Still no power. If it's not back tonight after work, I'm packing-up and heading for Durham. Agreed taht some people have it rougher even than this but my working-class a** is FROZEN!

I got stuck between Christie and Ossington on the subway. It was interesting. But stepping out from underground at the corner of Dufferin and Bloor was almost beautiful. Being from Fredericton, New Brunswick and seeing the city shut down was incredible.

The beauty was lost on me about 2 hours after though.

Lucked out too. We're OK at Crawford and Harbord.

You were on the subway? Interesting. How did you guys get out of the trains? Did they let you walk on the tracks?

Hi,

Does anyone know if the power is back on around Dupont and Bathurst or Dupont and Christie? Thanks!

Anyone have an update on Roncesvalles?

We're up just east of Dufferin and Davenport...any news on this area? Thanks!

Hey i live just off of bloor near dovercourt and word has it that there is no power there.. but out water pipes are starting to burst.. and for thoes who have radiators.. (like us).. we had to drain ours to prevent them from cracking... NOT FUN!... we;re suppose to get outs back up by tonight at 10 MINIMUM!... word of advice: SLEEP SOMEWHERE ELSE!!!!

I'm at Yonge and Bloor now - anyone know if powers back on at Parkside south of Howard Park? Getting worried now about our rads...

I have a warm house in ronces area if any needs somewhere to warm up.

Thanks for the update Wayne!

Any word on Roncy and High Park Blvd? I guess they arer working their way south ...

Goddamit. I'm at Sunnyside and Parkdale Rd. and there ain't no power still (as of 12:45).

Thermostat was reading 10 degrees last i checked.

At Roncesvalles and Howard Park, we never lost power. So I don't know how that worked out but for once, it was in our favor.

Any word on Bloor/Christie? Poor cats are freezing their asses off! The humans are fine and shivering through.

hi again, does anyone have any recent news about the area south of bloor between ossington and dufferin? i'm on delaware just north of college! i just read the post about pipes bursting and radiators cracking...if anyone has good news, please let me know! thanks folks.

This has gotta be the best, most timely update thread on this situation. Thanks so much to everyone providing updates!

Any current word on the Sorauren/Roncy/Fern area? I had to bail with my two dogs to a cousin's place in Forest Hills this AM. Just too darn cold! And no internet to boot...

Thanks again, lk

@ Elaine,

Yep, West side of Roncesvalles was OK, East side to about Lansdowne was dark. I saw that West Lodge Apts was ablaze as usual last night.

does anyone know when power around ossington will be restored

hi nadav, where on ossington are you?

I'm at work while my kitties are braving it home alone on Ronces at Wright...anyone know if power is back up there yet?

I live between Dufferin and Lansdowne, north of Bloor, south of Dupont (specifically on Armstrong). it's 4pm now, and no one has posted news about that area yet. Does anyone know if the power is on in that quadrant yet?

phoned Toronto Hydro ... was told Fern might not have power until later tonight ... anyone have better news about Fern/Sauraren??

@ Janice: Thanks for the update! Im at Keele/Annette as well. Maybe I wont come home to a completely dethawed fridge after all.

4:49pm -- power still off in Geoffrey/Sorauren area. Gettin' cold, the chirping smoke alarms are starting to go into malfunction mode, kind of like HAL9000. "Fiiiiiire .... Fiiiirrrrrrre" Until now, I didn't know they could speak.

Mine started chirping last night too. It was because the battery used for backup power (the thing usually draws power from a direct electrical connection) was pretty much dead. I had to take the sucker down and pull out the battery. Definitely double-checked that all my candles were blown out before I left.

It really freaked out my dogs too. They couldn't really understand why a woman in the ceiling was talking to them.

does anyone know if there's power bon Dovercourt between College and Bloor

i live on follis, and am pretty sure we are still without power. but i know that i went past loblaws in a cab at 10:30 this morning and that whole block had power.

Still no luck at constance/indian road. poor kitties...

Just heard about the blackout. My son lives around Sterling/Bloor area. Can anyone tell me if there's any power back on yet.
Can't get a hold of him at work, cell or home phone.....

Worried Mom

The CTV web site has a link to the City of Toronto. http://www.toronto.ca/residents/power-outage-january09.htm From there click on http://www.toronto.ca/residents/pdf/map-power-outage-jan-09-2.pdf This shows a map of streets without power -- but as of 4:49.

We lucked out thankfully, we are over near davenport between spadina and bathurst and we did not lose power. I can't imagine how cold it got after a few hours. Our house is freezing even WITH the heat on!

Thanks Tanja.

as of 8:11pm, no power on St. Clarens, south of Lappin, north of Wallace.

Anyone know if the lights are on yet in the area SW of Bloor/Dundas/Roncesvalles? I'm trying to decide if I should go home yet.

According to the recorded message at Toronto Hydro, as of 9:30pm power has been fully restored to all areas.

hey everyone! i was at delaware and college at 6: 30pm and there was no power north of college. does anyone know if it's back on in that neighborhood yet? thanks, caroline

I am back home on Armstrong, 3 blocks north of Bloor, between Lansdowne and Dufferin. Power is back on here now (10:00pm) and my cat's happy to see me.

The floor and anything metal or wooden was quite cold still, so the furnace probably didn't come back on until maybe an hour ago. The pilot light on the water tank was still on, which was a big plus. Not sure about all the frozen homemade meals I have in the freezer though.

Now that the power is back on it's time to say goodbye to the contents of the fridge... and I went grocery shopping yesterday too. :-(

During a power outage, with the door kept closed food in the fridge is good for 4 hours, food in a full freezer 48 hours, half full freezer, 24 hours (Red Cross Website)

We live near dundas and bloor, and our power was out for the full 24 hours or so, it went out at 9:40ish and came on about 9:15 the next evening. It was so cold, everyone we knew was affected and we didn't have any way of knowing about the warming centers so we stuck it out at home, we got by wearing winter coats and snuggling under the blankets trying hard not to let any breeze in, and eating lots.

It was pretty brutal. It was bad the first night, but because our radiator was still hot it took a while to cool down, the day was bad too because I had to open the curtains to let in some light to save our flashlights and candles, so it let in a draft and it was bad, then the worst was when night hit again, it was so much colder than the night before.

Thank goodness the power came back on, I don't know what we would have done if we had to try and make it through the whole of the second night.

Shuttle buses can never replace the subway's capacity. People are encouraged to consider an alternate route in these situations. For example, take a bus south to a streetcar line, then east into the downtown core. The TTC is one of the few systems in the world that provides shuttles when its subway is down.

If you're reading this at work while layering on the deodorant 'cause the power was still out at home... well, someone at Toronto Hydro seriously has some explainin' to do.