Toronto ice blow "even funerals couldn't be held"

"Ice blow, catastrophe" was how Avromie Friedman, a leading Hatzala member in Toronto defined the harsh weather prevailing in the Canadian city since the rainstorm that hit on Saturday night.

Friedman said that on Saturday night there were heavy rains which continued to fall for hours without a break. On Sunday early morning, blackouts started already, residents woke up to a morning of ice, cold and power outages. It turned out that the heavy rain suddenly became a hard ice layer, which is not recalled in Canada. The rain froze on the trees and wires, causing the collapse of trees that caused the collapse of electricity and telephone wires – since Sunday a quarter million people were cut off from electricity.

Walking in the streets and driving in them has become extremely dangerous. One can not move because of the ice and mainly because of the trees and wires which collapsed on homes, cars and blocked roads. The situation has created a genuine catastrophe. Usually after a snow storm, snow plows pass and scatter salt to prevent slipping, in the current situation the snowplows could not move on roads since toppled trees blocked roads and cut wires which are life-threatening to those who approach them.

Friedman describes a catastrophic situation of intense cold which prevails in Toronto: last night (Monday) the temperature dropped to ten degrees below zero, people trying to get on to the street fell and broke limbs, bar mitzvah seudos which were postponed in the absence of electrical heating, Batei Midrash use candles for lighting, women gave birth at home and the elderly froze.

"Today we will assess the situation, and we are considering the possibility of establishing in one of the large halls a shelter for babies and children, as well as the elderly who are at risk," Friedman said last night.

Yechezkel Korenreich, a veteran of Toronto, says that such a storm is not remembered in the city. IEC which promised to fix power within 72 hours is having trouble keeping its promise, the schools are closed, yeshivos are closed and Talmudei Torah are partially closed and some are open .

Those who managed to buy a generator on Saturday night, gained, since today generators can not be obtained anywhere in Toronto, most shops are closed, the gas stations are also closed except for two individual gas stations in which to refuel one has to wait in line for hours.

Korenreich tells of funerals which were postponed and weddings which were held in the dark by candlelight, with a few guests who risked their lives to reach them.

A notice provided by the Canadian power company reported that power restored to customers may take 72 hours or more. "Probably the efforts to return power will last through at least Wednesday, therefore disconnected customers are asked to find alternative solutions for the time being," the company said in a statement, which called for citizens to share power with their neighbors.

"This is one of the strongest snowstorms seen in Ontario," said District Director of the Electrical Company. "At this point we run generators providing for emergency cases in hospital."

More than 700 flights were canceled in the United States on Sunday, and 11 thousand were postponed in view of the extreme weather conditions. At the same time, almost a quarter of all flights at the airport in Toronto were canceled. Over 300 flights were canceled due to ice build up on the runway.

"Air Canada" airlines announced that it will waive cancellation fees, to enable customers to change their flights in coming days. The rail service in the country reported that no cancellations are expected, although there may be possible delays.

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