Businesses struggle to cope during blackout

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Businesses in the downtown core were trying to cope with a blackout that affected more than 6,000 customers on July 26.

Lights were knocked out along parts of the downtown, including King St. E., where many shops without power were trying to cater to customers.

A lightning strike that hit a hydro pole is being investigated as the cause, hydro officials said.

Jason Sawyer, general manager of Gabby’s restaurant on King St. E., was serving nothing but beer as a handful of customers sat at the candle-lit bar.

“I’m keeping the fridge closed, but the food should be all right,� he said. “The ovens work but I don’t want the staff to cook in the dark because of safety concerns.�

At Savanna, a home furnishings store that sells exotic African artworks and furniture, Lisa Donovan sat by herself in the darkened store with no customers anywhere in sight.

“We’re open until 6 p.m., so I’ll keep the shop open,� she said. “It was a slow day anyway.�

Not all shops were affected. A few stores away, Starbucks was serving coffee on full power.

Streetcars were also running, but traffic lights along King St. were out and motorists were treating the intersections as four-way stops.

A section of downtown bounded by Gerrard St. to the north, Lakeshore to the south, Bay St. to the west and the Don Valley Parkway to the east was affected.

Toronto Hydro officials said the outage was reported at 10:55 a.m. Problems at a Hydro One supply circuit and pole at the Hearn generating station cut the power supply being fed to two area substations — one at George and Duke Sts. and the other at the Esplanade.

The Esplanade power supply was restored fairly quickly but repairs remained to be completed at the George and Duke Sts. station.

Toronto Hydro spokesperson Tanya Bruckmueller said a storm reported in the area may be linked to the cause of the outage, but crews were still trying to determine if that is the cause.

Hydro officials said power supply is sporadic as some areas within the area have power while some have partial power or none at all.

Mario Gervais, a customer service worker at BCE Place Flower Shop headquarters at Richmond and Parliament Sts., said he and fellow employees were using back-up phones to conduct business as they waited for power to be restored.

Ryerson University reported power outages in the business, image arts and computer engineering buildings.

The cause of the outage was apparently a broken pole at a north Toronto transformer station. It’s possible the pole was brought down by lightning as a storm moved through the city earlier.

A Toronto Hydro spokesperson, Tanya Bruckmueller, said it’s unlikely the problem was associated with power usage since demand doesn’t normally peak until later in the day.

TTC spokeswoman Marilyn Bolton said there had been no reports of service disruption anywhere on the transit system.