Outages after Ontario ice storm drop below 70,000 as restoration continues [Video]

Hydro One says the number of customers without power has dropped to 69,000 as the utility makes progress on the prolonged ice storm outages.

The day’s total is down by about 33,000 from Saturday.

The provincial utility says weather is favourable and its helicopters and drones are back in the air to help survey the damage.

The utility says crews replaced 50 poles and rebuilt a section of the power system in the Minden area Saturday, in one sign of the severe damage facing parts of the grid.

Over a million Ontario homes and businesses experienced outages since the last weekend’s ice storm and subsequent days of high winds and heavy rain.

A regional breakdown issued by Hydro One suggests the area in and around Kawartha …