The huge blackout that struck Toronto on Tuesday has had a ripple effect across the city, eliciting strong reactions from the public and resulting in offices and stores shuttering early for the day.

A reported figure in excess of 165,000 Toronto Hydro customers are expected to remain without power until well into Tuesday evening and potentially into the early morning hours of Wednesday.

It's being called the biggest blackout of the last decade.

In my almost 10 years here I have not seen a power outage of this size in the @CityOfToronto! #Toronto pic.twitter.com/K4CZW6fjfU

— Matt McGowan (@matt_mcgowan) July 16, 2024

Even two hours into what is expected to be an outage lasting up to 12 hours in some areas, people were clearly growing impatient with the wait as the workday burned away before their eyes.

When is the Toronto power outage going to end?! 2 hours and nothing!
We have lives to attend to @TorontoHydro

— Negin is meeting D&P (@the_negin) July 16, 2024

Other 9-to-5ers lucked out thanks to the outage. The lunch rush quickly turned into the end-of-day rush in the city's Financial District, where throngs of pedestrians were out on the street headed home from work hours early amid reports that the outage would persist past the end of the workday.

Power outage in downtown Toronto. Stores and offices closed early, but the sun is shining as if nothing happened. Bay St/King St. #onstorm #Toronto #downtown #poweroutages #July16th #July2024 #Tuesday pic.twitter.com/PLsUYtteoT

— Jaz (@jz_zerru1) July 16, 2024

Crowds out in the street are drawing comparisons to the 2003 blackout that plunged the entire Northeast into darkness just shy of 21 years ago.

Toronto rn is giving me flashbacks to the 2003 blackout.

— Steph 🦂 (@Curly_Stephh) July 16, 2024

In fact, one person even said it was the most alive they've seen the city since the before times.

This is the most alive I’ve seen downtown Toronto since COVID, guess we just needed a massive power outage.

— David Chan (@DavidChan) July 16, 2024

Some are using the blackout as an opportunity for some territorial humour.

Thankfully there are only outage issues west of Yonge and south of the 401, a small community that subsists on foraged mushrooms and squirrel

— cooldude (@cooldudettv) July 16, 2024

Toronto Hydro has blamed the outage on provincial energy company Hydro One, issuing a statement saying that crews are "currently responding to widespread outages throughout the city as a result of a loss of supply from Hydro One."