'Our website is a disaster,' says Ward 15 Coun. Judi Partridge
By Adam Carter, CBC News
Posted: Jul 22, 2013 11:33 AM ET
Last Updated: Jul 22, 2013 11:32 AM ET
Some Hamiltonians are without power and still feeling the brunt of Friday's summer storm.
As of 9:30 a.m. Monday, around 1,300 homes in the Hamilton area are without power, according to a statement from Horizon Utilities. They stem from "additional outages" that were reported Monday morning, the company says.
"Horizon has more than 100 tradespeople in the field and more than 50 staff working in the office on the restoration effort," the statement reads. "We understand the impact this outage has for our customers. Crews continue to work around the clock to restore service as quickly as possible."
The outages aren't confined to any one area — small pockets of neighbourhoods throughout the city are without power. That includes the Mountain, the lower city, Stoney Creek and Ancaster. Visit the Horizon website for a specific list of outages.
Friday night's storm brought howling winds and rain that uprooted trees and knocked out power for much of the city. Some residents were angry about how the city and Horizon Utilities has handled the cleanup.
On Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m., Mary Fleming, who lives on Dufferin Street in Hamilton's North Westdale community, had been without power in her home for nearly two full days.
During that period of time, she and dozens of her neighbours, Fleming said, were virtually in the dark in terms of information on when the hydro would return.
"I'm quite annoyed with Horizon Utilities," she said, accusing the company of not keeping customers in her area adequately informed.
She said the hydro provider should have done a better job of supplying timely and accurate information to the media on how work was progressing.
Rick Carnegie, another Dufferin Street resident, said he and his neighbours "haven't heard anything" from both the city and Horizon, and have had to rely on hearsay from friends and family.
But Ward 1 Coun. Brian McHattie says that crews are doing the best they can given the circumstances. "Overall, the cleanup is going well," he told CBC Hamilton. "It was an extraordinary storm."
"I think Horizon Utilities did their very best. They had a lot to deal with."
McHattie did say one area where response could improve is on the communication side of things. He says some people were struggling to stay up to date about when power would be restored. "And people do need to know what's going on."
Karen Knox-Tuininga was in that boat. "Horizon Utilities didn't even have us on the 'outage' page on their website," she wrote on the CBC Hamilton Facebook page. "We didn't see any action from them until people started calling Sunday morning and complaining. "
"The woman who answered the phone at Horizon had no idea our area was without power at all."
'Massive' undertaking
Horizon Utilities spokesperson Neil Freeman defended the firm's communications strategy. The company's staff, he said, provide frequent news releases to the media and constantly update their website and social media accounts with information on the outages.
It's difficult, he conceded, to spread the word to customers whose power hasn't been restored. "I guess I don't know how we're supposed to get directly in touch with them."
Speaking about the cleanup effort, Freeman said Horizon continues to work "around the clock" to restore service.
"It's been a massive restoration effort under extraordinarily difficult circumstances."
Ward 15 Coun. Judi Partridge called the storm "chaos." She ended up directing traffic in her ward shortly after the storm hit. "It was a horrific storm," she told CBC Hamilton. "Everyone said they'd never seen anything like this."
'Our website is a disaster'—Ward 15 Coun.Judi Partridge
Partridge says some improvements could be made when it comes to cleanup efforts. "Horizon seems to be responding quickly to urban areas, but not as much as rural areas," she said.
As of 11 a.m. Monday, the city's website had no information as to how residents can dispose of fallen limbs or excess garbage as a result of the storm.
"Our website is a disaster," Partridge said. "I've been hearing a lot of 'who do I call? What do I do?' from residents.'"
Friday's thunderstorms, experienced across much of southern Ontario, capped off a week of 30-plus-degree heat in the city. During the storms, high winds and lightning tore down branches and toppled entire trees. Some ripped down hydro wires as they fell to the ground. In Ontario, about 18,700 Hydro One customers had no electricity on Monday morning.
A municipal worker in a Montreal suburb was killed by a falling tree during the storm, while at least 10 others were injured across Quebec.
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