More than 20,000 homes and businesses in London, Ontario, were left without electricity as darkness fell on Boxing Day, with power officials warning that some areas may remain off the grid until Saturday morning following a severe ice storm.
Utility provider London Hydro said around 21,000 customers were affected by outages by early evening on Friday, as freezing rain caused extensive damage to trees and power lines across the city. By 9pm, the number of active outages had fallen to 46, down from a peak of 75 earlier in the day, but large areas remained without electricity.
The outage map showed significant disruption across the city’s south end, a concentrated blackout in the east, and smaller outages in neighbourhoods including Oakridge and Byron.
Freezing rain damages power infrastructure
The outages followed a winter storm that brought freezing rain, coating trees and overhead lines in thick ice. With overnight temperatures forecast to fall to around minus six degrees Celsius, concerns grew about residents facing prolonged periods without heating.
London Hydro spokesperson Kathryn Arnot said the combination of ice accumulation and falling branches had severely impacted the electricity network. She said the weight of ice caused older tree limbs to snap, bringing down lines and damaging equipment.
Hydro crews were deployed across the city to isolate faults and restore power safely, but Arnot warned that some repairs could take many hours or extend overnight due to the scale of the damage.
Residents report repeated outages
Residents took to social media to describe lengthy outages and unstable power supplies. Some reported electricity cutting out for hours, briefly returning before failing again, while indoor temperatures dropped steadily.
Others said they spent hours clearing fallen branches from vehicles and roads near apartment complexes, while several people reported hearing transformers fail during the storm.
Safety warnings and travel disruption
London Hydro urged residents to stay at least 10 metres away from any downed power lines and reminded drivers that intersections without functioning traffic lights should be treated as four-way stops.
The outages began mid-afternoon on Friday as Environment Canada issued a freezing rain warning, with temperatures hovering just below zero. Police warned that road conditions deteriorated rapidly as ice built up on surfaces.
Ontario Provincial Police said multiple crashes were reported across the region and urged motorists to avoid unnecessary travel, warning that some drivers were still behaving as if conditions were safe.
Flight cancellations add to disruption
The severe weather also disrupted air travel, with several departures and arrivals cancelled at London International Airport, including flights connecting with Toronto.
The storm is the latest in a series of extreme winter weather events affecting parts of Canada this season, raising concerns about the resilience of power infrastructure as freezing rain events become more frequent and intense.
