Entegrus officials are asking for patience as they work round-the-clock to restore power to all of their customers in Chatham-Kent.
CEO Jim Hogan says the strong winds Wednesday afternoon just added to the challenge of fixing downed powerlines.
Entegrus President and CEO Jim Hogan (Photo by Jake Kislinsky)
"It's very dangerous on a good day to work on the lines," says Hogan. "When the wind is continuing to whip around and it's getting dark out there, the crews need extra time to get their work done because safety is number one."
Hogan says even when all the power is restored, their work is far from over.
"Crews were out very late [Wednesday] evening and they were back in early [Thursday] morning," says Hogan. "It's probably going to take us the next couple of days to really clean everything up -- even when the customers' power is on, there are still some issues we need to take care of."
As Entegrus crews work to repair downed powerlines, they're also running into some challenges that involve Hydro One because a lot of the local power supply comes from the provincial utility.
"[Hydro One] had a significant challenge [Wednesday]," says Hogan. "The Hwy. 401 westbound was actually closed because one of [Hydro One's] lines was down."
Hogan says he appreciates everyone's patience as the work continues.
You can find Entegrus' power outage map by clicking here.
