Sudden Darkness in Belleville: When Over 2,000 Homes Went Quiet

It was a Thursday morning, ordinary enough for thousands in Belleville — until, suddenly, it wasn't. Just after 10 a.m., an unexpected hush fell over a significant swath of south-central Belleville, silencing the usual hum of daily life. More than 2,000 Hydro One customers, from the familiar stretches of Moira Street West to Coleman Street and along Bridge Street West, found themselves plunged into an unscheduled darkness. Yes, the lights went out.

The culprit? Well, as it often goes with these things, Mother Nature played a hand. Hydro One confirmed it was a pesky, fallen tree — an unassuming arboreal troublemaker, you could say — that had decided to make an untimely descent onto power lines. And just like that, the current stopped flowing. It really makes you think about how intertwined our lives are with that invisible force, doesn't it?

This wasn't just about dimming lights in homes, mind you. The ripple effect was immediate, albeit brief, for local services. Belleville Transit, for instance, experienced a temporary hiccup with its online real-time bus tracking system. For commuters relying on that immediate information, it was a moment of minor frustration, an extra layer of unexpectedness on an already disrupted morning.

But here’s the thing about these situations: utility crews, bless their tireless work, spring into action. Hydro One was on it, estimating that power would be fully restored by 12:45 p.m. that very day. A couple of hours without power can feel like an eternity when you're caught off guard, yet for once, the wait wasn't projected to be an all-day affair. It's a reminder, perhaps, of the intricate dance between nature's whims and our modern infrastructure, and the constant effort to keep things running, even when a tree has other ideas.