Barrie steps up to help Oro-Medonte Township as it continues under a State of Emergency

Springwater staff have restricted Ronald Road and Glengary Landing South down to one lane due to flooding. Mon., April 7, 2025. Submitted.

Schools remains closed and the power is still out.

More than a week after an ice storm devastated Ontario, while other townships are travelling the road to recovery, just north of Barrie, pockets of Oro-Medonte Township remain in the dark.

Dark but not forgotten.

The residents are being cared for, by the people and businesses of Barrie.

Barrie’s Chamber of Commerce received more than 100 blankets, more than 100 lbs of food and 800 bottles of drinking water for the residents of Oro-Medonte on the weekend.

Businesses who chipped in include, Smitty’s Fine Furniture, Swish Maintenance, Coke Canada Bottling, RBC, Gilda’s Club, Rychard Lardner, Rick Earhart, Avetti, Simcoe Employment, CARP (Tom Oldershaw), Great Lakes Water Solutions and Two Men and a Truck.

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Over in Springwater, staff have restricted Ronald Road and Glengary Landing South to one lane due to flooding.

And Ramara Township is posting locations for sand and sandbag and warming stations as power remains elusive to many of its residents

“I want to take a moment to thank everyone for your incredible patience and support over the past eight days. I’m pleased to report that we are gradually seeing power restored throughout our community, and Hydro One is working diligently to reconnect all of Ramara,” said Mayor Basil Clarke.

Clarke also adds that as power is being restored, residents should inspect their electrical box to ensure it hasn’t pulled away from the house or if it’s broken to call an electrician.

Hydro One now has more than 4,800 workers restoring power to central Ontario. This includes mutual aid resources from our contractors and 29 additional utility partners.

With a clear forecast, Hydro One is sending helicopters and drones over heavily damaged areas and flooded fields and roads to check for restoration and resource viability.

“Severe damage continues to be discovered as new areas are accessed. Crews are rebuilding of sections of the local distribution grid in many places,” Hydro One said in a press release, crews have identified more than 2,200 broken poles thus far.

The statement also cautions, “For remote areas, including customers who can only be reached by water, restoration may take longer. This includes many seasonal properties.

We continue to have ample materials to complete restoration. Restoration in the hardest hit areas will continue into next week.”

As of 6 a.m. Monday, Hydro One’s Outage Map:

BARRIE

Customers Affected: 230

Customers Served: 30,995

Estimated Restoration Tuesday 2 p.m.

BRACEBRIDGE

Customers Affected 8,665

Customers Served: 20,415

Estimated Restoration Apr 30, 2025, 6 p.m.

COUCHICHING

Customers Affected 2,942

Customers Served: 14,683

Estimated Restoration Tuesday, noon

HUNTSVILLE

Customers Affected 69

Customers Served: 22,496

Estimated Restoration Assessing Damage

NEWMARKET

Customers Affected 211

Customers Served: 65,106

Estimated Restoration Monday 11 a.m.

ORILLIA/0R0-MEDONTE TWP.

Customers Affected 7,477

Customers Served 20,652

Estimated Restoration Wednesday 7 p.m.

OWEN SOUND

Customers Affected Fewer than 20

Customers Served 51,892

Estimated Restoration Monday 11 p.m.

PARRY SOUND

Customers Affected 1,176

Customers Served 18,477

Estimated Restoration Monday 9 p.m.

PENETANGUISHENE

Customers Affected 3,769

Customers Served 21,702

Estimated Restoration Saturday, 6 p.m.