A state of emergency remains in effect for both the City of Peterborough and the City of Kawarthas Lakes due to the severe ice storm over the weekend.
Both municipalities issued updates on Tuesday (April 1) on their response to the storm and services available to residents.
City of Peterborough
In Peterborough, warming centres remain open for both city and county residents who do not yet have power. They are located at the Healthy Planet Arena banquet hall (911 Monaghan Rd.), Miskin Law Community Complex (271 Lansdowne St. W.), and the Peterborough Sport and Wellness Centre (775 Brealey Dr.).
The Healthy Planet Arena banquet hall will be open overnight until at least noon on Wednesday, with the other two facilities open from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Showers will be available from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily at all three warming centres when they are open.
The Salvation Army and other community partners are providing food at the Healthy Planet Arena.
A free shuttle bus continues to operate for any residents who need to get to any of the three warming centres. The shuttle runs every 30 minutes starting at 8 a.m., with the last trip departing from city hall at 10:50 p.m.
The shuttle bus runs in a loop and stops to pick up and drop off passengers at Murray and George streets (outside city hall at 500 George St. N.), the Simcoe Street bus terminal (190 Simcoe St.), the Peterborough Sport and Wellness Centre, Healthy Planet Arena, and Miskin Law Community Complex.
Peterborough Transit has resumed some routes, with some detours where hazards such as downed power lines affect routes. Routes #5, #10, and #11 are operating as regularly scheduled (route #11A is not operational yet). Route #2 is operating with a minor detour around Reid Street near Hunter Street, and Route #4 is operating from the Peterborough Museum and Archives via Hunter Street to the bus terminal, and extending west to the Peterborough Regional Health Centre via Charlotte Street.
The city’s social services office at 178 Charlotte Street has reopened, with office hours 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. from Monday to Friday. The Peterborough Public Library and Peterborough Museum and Archives reopened on Tuesday.
With the exception of the warming centres, recreation facilities — including arenas, the pool, and community centres — remain closed until at least noon on Wednesday, when the city expects they will reopen as long as power is maintained at the facilities.
Riverview Park and Zoo — including the exhibits, parking lot, playground, disc golf area, and park spaces — will remain closed until further notice, due to damage sustained in the area. Several trees have been damaged, with hanging limbs and downed power lines. The closure will remain in effect as staff work to make necessary repairs and ensure the area is safe. The care of the animals is being maintained and none of the around 150 animals at the zoo were injured due to the storm.
The Provincial Offences Office at 99 Simcoe Street remains closed.
Due to the risk of falling trees and tree limbs caused by ice accumulation, all city parks remain officially closed.
Public works crews continue to respond to downed trees on streets and sidewalks, addressing hazardous situations. There were additional reports of downed trees on Monday night and Tuesday morning.
The city is reminding residents without power to follow guidelines from Peterborough Public Health on food safety and storage and from Peterborough Fire Services on the safe use of generators and gas-powered cooking stoves or charcoal grills.
Curbside garbage, recycling, and green bin collection is proceeding on the regular schedule this week. Spoiled food can be disposed in green bins as long as all packaging has first been removed.
Regular yard waste curbside collection service begins this week, and residential yard waste and tree debris can be dropped off at the city-county landfill at 1260 Bensfort Road free of charge until April 14.
When resources are available, the city will provide curbside chipping service for large tree debris that cannot be processed through the regular yard waste curbside collection. Resources are currently dedicated to addressing hazardous and critical conditions. The city will provide an update when curbside chipping service begins.
The city is temporarily waiving the permit requirement to remove trees that have been destroyed, destabilized, or structurally compromised as a direct result of the ice storm, as long as residents send an email to treebylaw@peterbough.ca — preferably prior to removing the tree or as soon as possible after removing the tree — with photos, property address, tree species information including diameter, and information physiological and structural condition of the tree.
City of Kawartha Lakes
In Kawartha Lakes, the city’s emergency operations met on Tuesday morning and received updates from all departments, Ross Memorial Hospital, and the Haliburton Kawartha Northumberland Peterborough Health Unit.
Power is being restored to parts of the municipality, including Lindsay (with the exception of southwest area and some other pockets), the main street of Fenelon Falls and south of the bridge, and pockets of the Manvers area and Bobcaygeon. Power restoration to rural and remote areas is expected to take several more days.
Intermittent cell coverage and internet access is continuing to affect communications throughout the municipality.
With the exception of Kawartha Lakes City Hall (26 Francis St., Lindsay), all municipal offices are closed, all recreational facilities are closed and programming cancelled, and all library branches are closed until further notice. The human services offices in Lindsay and Haliburton are closed.
Warming rooms are available at City Hall (in the Victoria Room on the second floor) from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., at Victoria Park Armoury (210 Kent St. W.) from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., at Fenelon Falls Community Centre (27 Veterans Way) from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and at the following fire stations from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.: Bobcaygeon Fire Station (1 Duke St.), Bethany Fire Station (88 Ski Hill Rd.), Mariposa Fire Station (552 Eldon Rd., Little Britain), and Burnt River Fire Station (186 Burnt River Rd).
Residents are welcome to charge their devices and warm up, and washrooms and hydration stations are available (bring refillable water bottles).
Clean-up in urban areas is beginning on the ground with parks staff, so arborists can follow with tree work. Crews are making progress clearing the roads of debris, but several downed power lines are creating hazards.
Lindsay Transit service has resumed, including Limo Transit.
The Lindsay landfill is open Tuesday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Residential yard waste and tree debris can be taken to the Lindsay landfill for disposal with no tipping fees until further notice.
Any missed waste collections will have double collection the following week.
The entire municipality is under a burn ban for the month of April to ensure fire service resources are not deployed to deal with unnecessary fires. Take residential yard waste and tree debris to the Lindsay landfill or wait until May to have a controlled brush fire with a permit.
Boil water advisories are in effect for residents within the Norland Drinking Water System, and the Woodfield Drinking Water System and Manorview Drinking Water System in Bethany. A boil water advisories for the Sonya Drinking Water System and Pinewood Drinking Water System (Pontypool) have been rescinded.
A boil water advisory requires all water to be used for cooking or drinking must be brought to a rolling boil and boiled for at least one minute prior to use. A safe alternative to using boiled water is using bottled water or water from a private well that has been tested. All other drinking water systems remain operational and water is safe to drink.
In other regional updates, the Trillium Lakelands District School Board has announced that schools (including the Virtual Learning Centre) and child care centres within schools will remain closed to students and staff on Wednesday. Some areas within the school board’s district are still without power and are dealing with the aftermath of the storm, such as power/internet outages, downed trees, and hazardous conditions, and there are freezing rain warnings starting Wednesday morning.
