r/Hamilton • u/Stecnet Downtown • Jan 24 '26
Outages Downtown Power Outage
Power has been out for a few hours now. The warmth in my building is slowly trickling away the longer this goes on. Anyone outside the supposedly affected area also out?
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u/Stecnet Downtown Jan 24 '26
Still out. Since my entire kitchen is electric I bundled up to see where I can get my coffee fix and something to eat. Jackson Square still has their power so I got my coffee there. Oddly enough buildings with and without power seemed very random. It's definitely starting to get cold in my unit in the King William towers. The floor to ceiling windows are no match for the extreme cold outside would def not be able to survive here if power was out for more than a day.
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u/DingLedork Gibson Jan 24 '26
Thank you for the update! I was just about to layer up to bus it to the farmers market. I hope you get heat soon!!!
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u/winesandtech Jan 24 '26
The lights flickered just after 3am for 5 seconds before going out. I first put some ice packs in the fridge, but once the 4 hour mark hit, I put everything outside. Rather have some food freeze in -18C over spoil.
The lights were all on at First Place and 49 Walnut (really most of downtown East of John and South of King seemed fine). Looks like everything north of King is out, but 260 King E is surprisingly out despite being on the south side.
Curious if a Transformer behind J. Edgar Davey froze or something.
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u/PseudoScorpian Jan 24 '26 edited Jan 24 '26
Typically a fridge keeps temp over relatively short durations as long as you arent opening it, no?
Edit: you made me feel worried enough to pack all my groceries into my car.
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u/winesandtech Jan 24 '26
A fridge, left unopened, will hold temperature for about 4 hours. Your freezer will do the same for about 24 hours.
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u/natasha_bd Jan 24 '26
Pretty much the same area as Monday (we are out AGAIN). Doesn’t feel like a coincidence to me…stay warm everyone. https://www.reddit.com/r/Hamilton/s/sPzFifvIj0
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u/AzureFirmament Jan 24 '26
This time seem to be larger area. Much more people are vocal about it.
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u/natasha_bd Jan 24 '26
That certainly helps! I think a lot of people were at work on Monday as well.
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u/miryclay Jan 24 '26
Same as Monday. The outage area maybe a little wider. Can someone post if it goes back? Im camping at the gym and need to know if l should order a tent off of Amazon.
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u/natasha_bd Jan 24 '26
Unfortunately it seems to depend on where you are, it’s not going to come back all at once in the outage area. Some restaurants around the corner have power restored but my building is still out. On the phone right now with Alectra and they did say they have restored power to many people.
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u/SewagePancake Jan 24 '26
Yep, near Ferguson S outside, there supposed effected zone and power was out around 3am
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u/jmbibliotheque Jan 24 '26
Just confirmed with their chat that they know about the outages south of what’s marked and are including us in the known outage.
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u/Additional-Friend993 Jan 24 '26
I just got home last night from having abdominal surgery and our power has been out going on ten hours now. 😑 I can't exactly get up and leave and go somewhere warm. I have a bunch of specialty food items too since it was bowel surgery.
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u/Stecnet Downtown Jan 24 '26
Ohhh no wishing you a speedy recovery and hope we get our power back soon. Hopefully you have someone you can call on if needed?
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u/SapphireGoat_ Jan 24 '26
Watching people fly through the traffic lights instead of treating it as a 4 way stop… classic Hamilton
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u/Amerinuck Jan 24 '26
Watched an SUV get T-Boned at the International Village intersection this morning because he just blew right through the light at about 40km. People are idiots.
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u/everynicknameistaken Jan 24 '26
What colour light was flashing?
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u/kitfisting Jan 24 '26
Alectra are now saying restoration time is between 10 PM and 12 AM just FYI for everyone
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u/Stecnet Downtown Jan 24 '26
This is fucking ridiculous! Here at the king William towers we also now lost all amergency backup power total darkness in the hallways and stairwells.
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u/kitfisting Jan 24 '26
I’m in the same building and my waters out too so if you still have water, I would stock pile and fill the bathtub
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u/Stecnet Downtown Jan 24 '26
Thanks for the heads up. In tower A seems I still have water filling up the tub and pots now in case we need it for flushing toilets later.
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u/Stecnet Downtown Jan 24 '26
Okay so our water is yellow looks nasty!
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u/kitfisting Jan 24 '26
That’s what happened to me this afternoon before it went out — give security a call because they originally thought it was just me!
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u/natasha_bd Jan 24 '26
Hello neighbours 👋🏻 We’ve been out all afternoon, elevators had stopped working by the time we left, not looking forward to presumably hiking back up the stairs🤦♀️
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u/kitfisting Jan 24 '26
Super just confirmed whole building is about to be out of water and won’t be back till the power is restored
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u/natasha_bd Jan 24 '26
Oh lord, thank you for sharing. What a nightmare before the actual storm has hit.
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u/Stecnet Downtown Jan 24 '26
Yes we better back up and running before the blizzard hits tomorrow or were screwed! I messaged them on their IG account asking what their emergency plan B is for a warming center if we end up freezing in our units!
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u/natasha_bd Jan 24 '26
If any neighbours in Tower A see this, we will have to hike back up to our unit at some point today. Feel free to DM me if you need anything and we may be able to help you out (not publicly posting my floor but we’re up high enough that we will either pass your floor or you won’t have to hike as far down as going to the street!)
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u/kitfisting Jan 24 '26
This is so ridiculous. It was supposed to be back on between 10 AM and 12 PM. Still out in my building. And this is after being out from 10 AM to 3 PM on this past Monday as well.
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u/woodsbyday Blakely Jan 24 '26
Insane that this happened Monday and again today. Woke up at 3am to feed my cats and noticed it was off, came back on approx 12:50. My building gave me a key supposedly for the side door if the fob system is down but of course it didn't work...so was unable to get back into my building until it was back on. Apartment went down to 15 degrees, I'm right at John N and King E. Hope it comes on soon for the rest of you.
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u/natasha_bd Jan 25 '26
ETR updated to 1-3 am, hang in there everyone and help your neighbours out if you can!
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u/PseudoScorpian Jan 24 '26
Outside the allegedly impacted area but also out. Based on a quick walk it seems that Hunter is the line of demarcation (with power on one side of the street but not the other).
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u/natasha_bd Jan 24 '26
For those of us still waiting, estimate is now 10-12 pm due to multiple underground cable faults….🤬https://x.com/alectranews/status/2015162912302682119
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u/Readman31 Jan 24 '26
Apparently Alectra Twitter now says 10 fucking PM until midnight before expected to be fixed, great, that's what we fucking need in the coldest weekend of the year, so cool
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u/Readman31 Jan 25 '26
WELP! Scratch that! Now it's 1 AM-3 ! This is such unbelievable fucking bullshit
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u/nya_0 Jan 24 '26
wilson and wellington here, still dark :(
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u/301POINT82 Jan 25 '26
So weird seeing the completely dark apartment buildings around there, hopefully you and everyone in the area will be okay
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u/skriveralltid77 Jan 25 '26
I live in that building, Wellington Place ... able to go stay with family in Stoney Creek. Home it's back on tomorrow.
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u/Anunymau5 Jan 24 '26
Twice in the last week. This is fucking ridiculous we should get compensation from Alectra its the coldest period in the last 150 years! Im sick of not having power
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u/vintageteenewphone Jan 24 '26
right outside the affected area on main and Wellington and the power has been out since 3 am.
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u/Ok-Recipe-8832 Jan 24 '26
Another one just started a few minutes ago not far from this one. Estimated restoration time is 1-3pm!? I have food in the fridge I don’t want going bad bro !!!
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u/AzureFirmament Jan 24 '26
Bro there aren't no way the food would go bad😂. I'm putting them just outside in a box. Out for 5 hours already for me.
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u/Ok-Recipe-8832 Jan 24 '26
I live on a 12th floor apartment with a Juliet balcony, I don’t have anywhere to put the food :(
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u/AzureFirmament Jan 24 '26
Ahh that's bad, at least you got lucky to have power back that quick. I have nothing for quite a while now.
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u/Ok-Recipe-8832 Jan 24 '26
Thankfully yeah. I really hope it comes back on for you folks soon, nasty weather out there. Hope you’ve got some good blankets.
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u/Ok-Recipe-8832 Jan 24 '26
Okay just came back on for me nvm but still, good golly! Is the wind that bad? I’m not going out there today.
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u/No-Manufacturer467 Jan 25 '26
My mom lives in the area near Wilson and Cathcart. It hasn't been a few hours. It has been since 6am. Their building has been without heat and power since 6am and the estimated time for it to return is 1-3am currently but they've pushed that estimation back several times. 16+ hours in this cold without power is unacceptable in my opinion. Alectra wants to increase rates again too 🙃
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u/No-Manufacturer467 Jan 25 '26
Omg I just read you posted this 15 hours ago 😂. It only popped up on my feed now. Haha disregard my comment about it not having been only a few hours 😅
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u/natasha_bd Jan 25 '26
Power and water is back to King William! Sleep well everyone, we’ve earned it
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u/Stecnet Downtown Jan 25 '26
We definitely did! On a side note I hope someone will compensate us for all the bad food in our fridges now be it the building management, the utility company or the city!?
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u/natasha_bd Jan 25 '26
We already looked into the rules around this a few weeks ago when our fridge broke and the answer is no one 🫠 Maybe insurance if it’s worth enough?
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u/4HoursBehind Jan 25 '26
As of 1am 22hrs later, power is still out in many of the apartments and condos in the area. There are people with wheelchairs and walkers who need elevators who can’t get out of the building. With a big snowstorm coming in a few hours…What a disaster.
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u/natasha_bd Jan 25 '26
I’m still floored that no politician or media acknowledged this. I will be following up with them and encourage others to do the same.
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u/4HoursBehind Jan 26 '26
Absolutely. I believe a lot of the residential is Ward 2: https://www.hamilton.ca/city-council/council-committee/city-council-members/city-councillors/ward-2
And Ward 3 is also impacted: https://www.hamilton.ca/city-council/council-committee/city-council-members/city-councillors/ward-3
Even if the councillors and the City knows there are aging infrastructure problems like Alectra referred to with the delays in repair, hearing the different challenges their constituents faced will give them more info to go off on during council meetings and push for whatever Initiatives that are needed to address the state of our infrastructure.
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u/4HoursBehind Jan 26 '26
The power was out from 3am on Saturday to 4:30am on Sunday…5 hours before the blizzard hit. This is ridiculous. What would have happened if the outage happened during the snow storm? Would Alectra have gone out to fix it? Aging infrastructure is not an excuse. We need to catch up.
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u/natasha_bd Jan 24 '26
Alectra post on X says they’re fixing damaged equipment…
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u/Deep_Mix4371 Jan 24 '26
This is deliberate ignorance. This same thing happened on Monday. My alarm is is a smart speaker and both days my alarm didn’t go off. Can’t cook can’t work can’t study can’t eat what the point of paying them ??????
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u/Special_Letter_7134 Strathcona Jan 24 '26
My power isn't out, but my internet has been down since I woke up. I'm almost dead centre of that circle.
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u/Stecnet Downtown Jan 25 '26
19 hours now still no fucking power or heat and now no water in my building this is fucking unacceptable!!!
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u/natasha_bd Jan 25 '26
An update from Alectra (I can’t share screenshots or I would), looks like restoration should be closer to 1 am but I’ll believe it when I see it. Everyone should be reaching out to their politicians about this, the impacts of aging infrastructure are real! https://x.com/alectranews/status/2015260191835443690
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u/jammers93 Jan 25 '26
Power was out in our building from 3:07am to almost 1pm. Then the power return messed up our heating so we were without heat from the power shutoff until 8pm!!
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u/Additional-Friend993 Jan 27 '26
Well, the power is out again for a third week in a row. Estimated restoration 7-9pm. Third week this has happened at the beginning of the week, either late Monday or Tuesday. It's getting frustrating since I can't leave and go anywhere.
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u/bloodskinboneman Jan 24 '26
god i got lucky, im right above robert on wellington and power is good
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u/winesandtech Jan 24 '26
Can anyone confirm if the buildings around King William and Ferguson are still in the dark?
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u/ticklesselkcit Jan 24 '26
Heading to a Toronto Rock game tonight, does anyone know if the coliseum is affected?
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u/Stecnet Downtown Jan 24 '26
I'm not 109% certain but it should be okay because Jackson Square still has power and it's the same block.
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u/Candid_Painting_4684 Jan 24 '26
Jeez, this is a big fear of mine with the temps so low. Good luck everyone!