The South Bayview Bulldog

Like an army going street by street in an embattled town, Toronto Hydro crews are making slow but steady progress against the ice storm power outages. These pictures show the repairs to a transformer on Sutherland Drive and Bessborough Ave. Along Sutherland west to Bayview Ave. wires lay on sidewalks and lawns while residents wait to be re-connected. Just a block away on Rolph Rd., a man paces back and forth in front of his home about noon Boxing Day. “I still don’t have power,” he grumbles. Swinging north on Sutherland just a half block from Millwood Rd., a man and his son are smiling as they clear the snow. “It came back on this morning” the father says happily. And so it goes through the neighborhood of many curved streets.  Rumsey Road, well noted in the  tweets at “dark leaside”, seemed to have power on either side of Millwood. At least that’s what a number of people out on the street were saying. They show neighborly spirit, always asking “And how are you doing?” On Airdrie Rd. between McRae Drive and Crofton Rd. there are clear cases of houses — one, two or maybe three — still in the dark because of the cables laying across the street.  About 145 pm. Boxing Day Brett Boertien tweeted from Leacrest Road that Hydro trucks had been spotted on the street. “Better late than never,” said Brett.

This graphic picture by Marc Apollonio reveals the extent of damage at a small apartment building on Elvina Gardens. That’s the little street that runs east of Mt. Pleasant Rd. one block north of Broadway Ave. The place was apparently vacant because of the the power failure. The fire department was summoned about 5.30 a.m. Boxing Day to what became a two-alarm fire. There were no injuries.

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.