Snow covered Nathan Phillips Square on a late spring snowfall April 11, 2013.Moe Doiron/The Globe and Mail
A freezing-rain warning was lifted for Toronto and points west Friday morning, but remained in effect for York, Halton and Durham regions and much of cottage country after a rainy, windy night left Southern Ontario's roads slicked with slush and ice.
Numerous school boards outside the city cancelled bus service for a second day.
Mid-morning, Hydro One reported that more than 116,000 of its customers were without power, mostly in rural locations, as the utility struggled to deal with hundreds of downed lines.
In Toronto, scattered power outages were reported overnight, knocking out traffic lights at several key intersections but in most instances service was restored within a few hours.
The largest hydro disruption, afflicting between 5,000 and 6,000 customers, was in the city's northwest, within a rectangle bounded by Wilson and Sheppard Avenues, and Bathurst and Keele Streets.
Elsewhere in the region power outages were more extensive, particularly in and around Hamilton, where thousands of customers lost electricity as a result of ice buildups on hydro lines and falling trees.
Dozens of flights in and out of Pearson International Airport and the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport were delayed or cancelled, and as usual air travellers were being urged to call ahead before heading for either airport, or to check departures and arrivals online.
On the roads, traffic was generally light, police said.
One of the more unusual travel interruptions happened on the VIA train tracks between Toronto and Montreal, when a tree or a large branch fell on the engine of an eastbound train as it neared Belleville at around 9 a.m., bringing the journey to a swift halt.
"What are the odds?" tweeted Alex Brassard, a political scientist headed for the NDP convention in Montreal.
After a 15-minute delay, the train began moving again.
Also affected was the busy Scarborough Rapid Transit line, which was shut down between Kennedy and McCowan Stations before trains began running again at around 7 a.m.
Toronto's school buses were running on schedule, but service was cancelled in several other large school districts, including Peel, Halton and Durham regions, and points east as far as Peterborough.
The Toronto police marine unit, meanwhile, was corralling a 200-tonne vessel that broke free from its moorings near Harbourfront Centre overnight.
Temperatures were warming up, with a high of 7 C anticipated by mid-morning, and a flood warning was also in effect as the snow and ice began to melt.
A look at school bus service in the region
- York Region District School Board: Bus and taxi service operating as normal
- Toronto District School Board: Student transportation operating as normal
- Halton: Buses cancelled on and north of Steeles for Halton District School board, Catholic Distrcit School Board, and French Catholic Board
- Simcoe County District School Board: All school buses cancelled in all of its zones
- Durham District and Durham Catholic District School Board: All school buses north of Hwy 7 cancelled, schools are open
- Peel District School Board: All buses in Caledon are cancelled, schools are open
- Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board: Buses in Caledon and Durham County are cancelled, schools are open
With a report from Jessica Chin