Hydro One crews on Monday continued to untangle the mass of downed lines that had left thousands of the region’s residents without power since Saturday.  

Trees toppled by high winds and wet, heavy snow damaged power lines and cut the flow of electricity to homes that grew dark and frigid.

“Power outages in the winter are a serious concern for our customers, and we will do all possible to have people restored as quickly and safely as we can,” said Myles D’Arcey, Hydro One’s senior vice-president, customer operations.

More than 36,000 customers were without power in communities that included Barrie, Orillia, Bracebridge, Parry Sound, Huntsville, and Penetanguishene.

Some 6,000 customers in Orillia alone were left in the dark, as were an equal number in Barrie, the provincial utility reported.

Penetanguishene and Bracebridge each had more than 9,000 homes without power.

Portions of Ramara, Severn and Oro-Medonte townships suffered outages as well.

Multiple crews were dispatched to repair damaged power lines, but those efforts were hampered by poor weather and road conditions, officials said.

Additional crews traveled to the area from other parts of Ontario to assist with the effort, which involved more than 800 staff.

“We will continue to deploy all available resources to restore power, and as power is restored in one area, crews will be redeployed to assist with further restoration efforts,” D’Arcey added.

Hydro One anticipated that power would be restored in Barrie and Orillia by approximately 5 p.m. on Monday.

The Simcoe County District School Board decided early Monday morning to close five of its schools due to a lack of power, said spokesperson Marla Tomlinson.

“The kids didn’t go at all,” she said. “We knew at twenty after six or so that the power wasn’t on. And on a Monday, the heat has been out all weekend, so we can’t send our kids into that.”

Hillsdale Elementary School, Forest Hill Public School, W R Best Memorial Public School, Guthrie Public School, and Minesing Central Public School were closed.

The board’s Midhurst-based education centre was also without power, but remained open for business.

“I’m sitting in the dark,” Tomlinson said in a telephone interview.

“We are just figuring things out, trying to figure when the power is coming back on,” she added.

Hydro One had restored power to more than 120,000 Ontario customers impacted by the weekend storm, officials said in a statement.