The twinkling porch lights tell it all. Throughout Moore Park, Bennington Heights and along Leaside’s signature drive named Bessborough, furnaces are on and families can do some short-term planning for Christmas morning. Most people have had elaborate plans washed out by the ice storm and its nasty aftermath. A Lawrence Park woman who took temporary refuge at the Roehampton Best Western spoke with sadness about a family reunion at her cottage which will not happen. Modern homes still have endless tasks left to clean up. Cars smashed by branches, the actual edibility of food in the fridge, restoring all the electronic utilities to more or less normal. But for the uniquely blessed residents of this part of Canada, an important corner has been turned. There are still pockets of darkness in South Bayview and our minds can never be at rest as long as vast numbers of Torontonians in the west end and Scarborough continue to labour under freezing conditions. Hope is real however as Hydro reports the diminishing number of those without power — down to 115,000 metered households or businesses — and that dozens of skilled crews from as far away at Manitoba are trucking to Toronto right now to help out. Some are already at work.
