Toronto Icestorm of 2013

[Electrify]

When will we have wireless electricity, or is it still science fiction?

Asking the wrong person, but we have inductive charging now, so full on wireless will likely happen in the next couple of decades. That said, it will likely be another couple of decades after that before we have full distribution infrastructure.

I think a more likely situation in the short term is more independent power generation through wind and solar, supplemented with nuclear.

 

[someMidTowner]

There is still a single set of lights out on Bathurst just north of Eglinton, and they aren't well lit by streetlights so people are flying through at 60+ not even noticing the 4-way stop. If they don't fix this one very very soon there will be a disaster over there.

 

[doug]

Asking the wrong person, but we have inductive charging now,

We've had that for well over 100 years. It's how transformers, motors, speakers and microphones work.

 

[Johnny Au]

What I meant by wireless electricity is that all electric devices, including yes, refrigerators, dishwashers, and cooking ranges, are wireless and are powered through electric currents through either contact or through the air.

This way, having power lines would be obsolete.

 

[gabe]

Hydro crews in Toronto are warning that high winds expected Friday and overnight could lead to a spike in power outages, delaying cleanup efforts as southern Ontario slowly recovers from last weekend’s ice storm.

Homes and businesses in southern Ontario, Quebec and parts of the Maritimes continue to wait for electricity nearly a week after freezing rain and ice pellets snapped tree branches and downed power lines.

As of late Friday afternoon, Toronto Hydro said more than 25,700 customers remain in the dark, while Hydro One reported 3,400 are without electricity. At the height of the storm, more than 600,000 customers in Ontario were without power.

At a news conference Friday, Toronto Hydro CEO Anthony Haines said crews are bracing for more power outages as high wind gusts of up to 40 kilometres per hour are expected to hit Toronto over the next 24 hours.

“We’re in fact expecting these 32, 000 customers not to be the final work ahead of us,” he said.

Haines warned that, as temperatures rise over the weekend, melting ice may also result in additional electrical damage.

“Even as late as this morning, we had additional stations lose power as a result of some of the wind gusts and trees continuing to fall on the lines,” Haines told reporters.

Interactive map: Toronto warming centres

Hydro crews also suffered some setbacks Thursday, as fresh snowfall brought new problems for power lines still laden with ice.

Haines said last weekend’s ice storm was unprecedented.

“We are recovering … from what has been the largest storm in Toronto Hydro’s history,” he said.

Mayor Rob Ford said, despite concerns about more damage to power lines, the city is making significant progress in recovery efforts and is “moving forward in a positive direction.”

Ford reiterated that it was unnecessary to declare a state of emergency, as all municipal resources were being put to use during and after the storm.

“We have done everything we can,” he said. “It wouldn’t have helped. All it would have done is panicked people.”

90 intersections remain without power
450 people attended warming centres Thursday night
76 TCHC single-home units remain without power
43 crews cleaning road debris
TDSB child care centres remain closed due to safety concerns


Read more: http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/toront...strong-winds-expected-1.1608762#ixzz2okbkjUvs

 

[doug]

What I meant by wireless electricity is that all electric devices, including yes, refrigerators, dishwashers, and cooking ranges, are wireless and are powered through electric currents through either contact

That's how it works now, we use contacts and wires to carry current.

or through the air.

These are called radio waves, such as microwaves...just don't get between the source and destination.

This way, having power lines would be obsolete.

Not really...doesn't make sense.

 

[W. K. Lis]

And then the sleigh hit, not one, but several branches...

 

[Hipster Duck]

I just don't accept the act of God mentality of Toronto Hydro. The CEO's attitude makes me kind of mad and I didn't even lose power. You can bury wires or not but the main issue is that the power infrastructure in the city is not acceptable. I will leave it to hydro experts to figure out how to best deal with the issue. I just don't want everyone to bury their head in the sand and say this is a one in 50 year event and go about their business. This is the second 1 in 50 year event we had in this city in the last 6 months. Times like these really make me feel that there is no one in charge who cares about anything long-term anywhere in this city. It gives one the impression that all these guys are just hanging around twiddling their thumbs and waiting for their pension plans to kick in.

+1.

I think this might be the thing I like the least about Toronto. I once heard this described as "institutional ossification" - when entities refuse to change because they've always done something the same way, despite the fact that circumstances have changed and the old way of doing things is outmoded and paralyzing.

This is very different problem from a "lack of political will". A lack of political will implies that decision-makers recognize that there is a problem, but lack the political and organizational resources to act on it. The problem with Toronto is that I don't think that people in power recognize there is a problem in the first place.

 

[Johnny Au]

And then the sleigh hit, not one, but several branches...

NORAD forgot to track that Santa.

 

[adma]

Funny; I thought that was subway musician Roger Ellis for a sec there

 

[gabe]

I heard this. I thought it was a tree limb that fell on my house! I even went outside to see what it was? Turns out it was a rare frost quake!


Rare 'frost quake' phenomenon bewilders Greater Toronto Area residents

A baffling boom on Christmas Eve that rattled Greater Toronto Area residents reeling in the wake of an ice storm was likely a rare phenomenon known as a frost quake.

Residents in the GTA and surrounding areas took to Twitter with reports of mysterious booms late Christmas Eve and early Christmas Day that even jarred many awake from slumber.

With the area encased in ice following a nasty mix of rain and snow Sunday, many believed ice or a tree limb -- or Santa's sleigh -- had fallen on their rooftop.

The U.S. Geological Survey did not register a seismic event in Ontario on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day and there were no reports to the American Meteor Society, ruling out comets or meteors, and leaving a cryoseism, or frost quake, as a likely explanation.

A rare phenomenon, cryoseisms usually "occur when temperatures go from above to below freezing," says CBC News meteorologist Michelle Leslie.

"Water in the surrounding soil and rocks freezes. As water freezes, it expands, putting pressure on the dirt and rocks," she says.

"When the pressure build-up is too much, the dirt or rocks will crack, and you hear a loud boom."

They tend to occur between midnight and dawn, the coldest time of night and are very localized, so residents a few blocks away may not have heard the Christmas Eve or Christmas day booms.

In Toronto, an extreme cold weather alert was in effect Tuesday, and temperatures were well below freezing in the GTA and surrounding areas.

According to local media reports, Indiana and Ohio residents were rattled by the phenomena in February 2011.

Some 250,000 residents in Toronto were without power following the major ice storm and tens of thousands are in their sixth day without electricity.

http://www.cbc.ca/newsblogs/yourcommunity/2013/12/rare-frost-quake-phenomena.html

 

[adma]

Just saying; after yesterday's/today's melt, our seemingly fatally sagging front/backyard trees miraculously sprung up again. Nature is miraculous (then again, cedars and butterfly bushes are naturally "springy")

 

[maestro]

Hydro asked for. Billion to replace end of life equipment and replace substandard poles and after much deliberation got only 700 million.

We could triple the length of our subway for the cost of burying the entire network. Even just the main streets would be pushing 15 billion.

A lot of the downtown's distribution system is buried but you wouldn't know as TTC power lines feeding the streetcar wire in the middle of the street hang deteriorating off their crap, solid core poles.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Come spring, I can see homeowners considering a new electrical project. A rewiring job to get a connection (with either a portable or standby) for a generator, for the critical electrical appliances (IE. furnace, water heater) in their houses. Of course, its deciding on what is critical and how electrical load could any generator can handle, and for how long.

I can see people switching from electrical to natural gas stoves, as well.

 

[Copper1212]

I know of a couple people who had gas stoves but couldn't use them because of electronic controls.

Anyways I actually work at the place that manufactures all distribution transformers for Toronto Hydro and we shipped 21 truck loads of stock to Toronto in response to the ice storm. I'm sure Toronto Hydro has a large stock pile of their own they used too!