As winter officially approaches, a new survey conducted by Innovative Research Group for Hydro One reveals that only 52 per cent of Ontarians feel prepared to manage through an extended power outage. The survey also highlights that while 28 per cent of Ontarians have at least a semi-complete emergency preparedness kit with some of the items they may need, nearly half don’t have anything prepared at all.
“Extreme weather events can happen at any time and sheltering in place is a reality for many Ontarians as we saw during last year’s holiday storm. Not being able to safely travel makes it incredibly important to ensure you have the items your family needs to be without power for up to 72 hours,” said Teri French, Executive Vice President, Safety, Operations and Customer Experience, Hydro One. “We know life grinds to a halt when the power goes out which is why our grid control centre is always monitoring for potentially damaging weather and our crews are available to respond 24/7.”
Of the 87 per cent of Ontarians that don’t have a fully complete emergency preparedness kit, 39 per cent say it had never occurred to them to have one and 11 per cent don’t think having one is necessary.
“On behalf of Ontarians, I’d like to thank Hydro One and their crews for their ongoing work to prepare the electricity grid for the upcoming winter season,” said Caroline Mulroney, President of the Treasury Board and Minister responsible for Emergency Management Ontario. “Snow and ice storms pose real dangers to individuals and critical infrastructure alike. Keeping the lights on in the event of an emergency is an important step to keeping Ontarians safe this winter. As the Minister responsible for emergency management, I’m proud to work with our partners, including Hydro One, to make sure people across Ontario are safe and prepared this winter.”
Hydro One encourages Ontarians to prepare a personalized emergency kit that reflects the needs of their family. Below is a list of critical items to include:
- Water and food that won’t spoil for all family members, including pets
- A manual can opener
- Windup or battery-powered flashlight and radio
- Extra batteries
- Cash
- First aid kit and medical items
- Blankets
- Emergency numbers including Hydro One’s outage line 1-800-434-1235
- Fully charged cellphone and a backup battery pack or a corded phone; a cordless phone will not work in a power outage
Keep your emergency kit in a backpack and make sure everyone in your home knows where to find it.
Hydro One also has a number of innovative outage tools available for customers to report power outages and easily access updates when and how they want including outage text alerts. When an outage occurs, customers can report it by texting 92887 (WATTS), or by using the company’s outage map and app, or calling 1-800-434-1235.
