Hundreds of Toronto Hydro customers in Etobicoke without power for more than 24 hours

Toronto — Toronto Hydro has apologized after about 700 customers in Etobicoke were left without power for more than 24 hours.

Toronto Hydro said that crews discovered an underground cable fault on Sunday night, which was caused by water damage.

“Crews overnight were isolating these cable and preparing for their work area, which included pumping out water from a couple of underground cable chambers,” Toronto Hydro spokesperson Russell Baker told CP24 on Monday morning.

“These repairs are complicated and do take time and care to do them properly. We cannot rush this work.”

The power outage affected customers in the area bounded by Bloor Street to the south, Eva Road to the north, The East Mall to the east and The West Mall to the west.

Toronto Hydro originally said that power would be restored around 4 p.m. on Monday, but said later in the evening that crews “ran into unexpected issues."

“Unfortunately, the outage may continue into the late evening,” Toronto Hydro said. “We know this has been very frustrating with everyone staying home and we're truly sorry. We can assure you that crews are doing absolutely everything they can to make repairs as quickly and safely as possible.”

Crews were still working on Tuesday morning. Toronto Hydro said they had to gradually turning the power back on to restore electricity to customers.

“We know that the last couple of days without power have been incredibly difficult and we truly apologize. Crews will continue to work until all customers have power back.”

Toronto Hydro announced that power had been restored around 9:45 a.m.