Thousands left in the dark as Toronto power outage stretches into second day

Midtown Toronto residents have been without power since approximately 9 p.m. Monday evening, an outage that has persisted into Tuesday afternoon and left locals frustrated with the response by Toronto Hydro.

Toronto Hydro tweeted just after 9 p.m. that "crews are on site completing an assessment of damaged equipment in the following approx. boundaries: Glencairn Ave. south to St. Clair Ave. E & Avenue Rd. east to Mount Pleasant Rd.," warning that "customers in this area will be experiencing an outage as a result."

Two hours later, Toronto Hydro updated residents that crews had "identified underground equipment requiring urgent repairs," and that "customers should be prepared to be without power through the night."

Outage update: Crews have identified underground equipment requiring urgent repairs. They’re working as quickly & safely as possible, however, customers should be prepared to be without power through the night.

— Toronto Hydro (@TorontoHydro) February 14, 2023

That warning proved correct as midtown residents woke up to a continued outage on Tuesday morning.

Hey .@TorontoHydro, when can us mid-town people expect to get our electricity back? It's been 15 hours🙃#darkto pic.twitter.com/V4rTW0j8CZ

— Robyn F. (@robynf_94) February 14, 2023

By morning, Toronto Hydro had identified a fire as the source of the outage, but that update held little significance for the up to 5,000 who woke up in darkness with no resolution in sight.

We hear our customers’ concerns & can provide further insight into the cause of the Midtown outage. While completing work in the area yesterday, crews discovered damaged equipment needing emergency repairs & have determined it was caused by a fire in an underground cable chamber.

— Toronto Hydro (@TorontoHydro) February 14, 2023

As of just after noon on Tuesday, area residents remain without power, an inconvenience that has many taking to social media to vent their frustrations toward Toronto Hydro.

Alright give me $300 for all my food that’s gonna go bad in the fridge then

— Thrasher (@thrasherxcv) February 14, 2023

Residents are complaining about all the food they will have to throw out, and the sky-high hydro bills they pay for the power they aren't even getting.

Are we going to have any discount in our hydro bill?

— Especialista em assuntos de BBB🦑 🇧🇷 (@djanlm) February 14, 2023

Toronto Hydro currently expects power to be restored by 3 p.m., a window that has already been moved back from 12 p.m.