HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2009-01-08, Page 1Weather tracking
Looking back through December’s weather can’t be a joyous task, but some students at East
Wawanosh Public School somehow came out of it with smiles on their faces. In preparing a
graph of the weather for December, Emily Rodger, left, and Paige Fear showed 24 days they
would call “snowy” on their graph. Not much to smile about, but these girls made the best of
it. (Shawn Loughlin photo)
Mild weather conditions and
province-wide windstorms left
nearly 250,000 people across
Ontario without power just as 2008
came to a close.
Windstorms on Dec. 28 and Dec.
29 resulted in over 230,000 Hydro
One customers reporting power
outages in addition to scattered
reports of outages in smaller areas
served by different providers.
Several thousand homes went
without power throughout the night
of Dec. 28 in the Walkerton service
area and several hundred homes in
the Clinton service area went
through the night before power
would be restored.
By Dec. 29, the number of
households without power was
reduced to 190,000 province-wide
and service helicopters for Hydro
One that were grounded on Dec. 28
due to windstorms were back in the
air.
Hundreds of homes in the Clinton
service area and thousands in the
Walkerton service area, however,
remained without power throughout
Dec. 29 as restoration times for
those areas varied between noon and
11:30 p.m.
By Dec. 30 many of the Walkerton
and Clinton-area households had
power restored, but outages were
still widespread in several cottage
areas such as Bracebridge,
Huntsville, Parry Sound and
Bancroft.
By New Year’s Eve, over 30,000
homes were still without power,
however, these were largely in
cottage country areas and most
Huron County homes had the lights
turned back on.
While the flagging economy may
have slowed some Christmas
spending, merchants generally had
expected worse.
Jason Rehkopf of Brussels
Foodland said that profits were
down somewhat from the previous
year, but “nothing major. We sold
fewer flowers but that’s all that was
less than normal.”
At Dauphin’s Country Store,Anne
Bosman too, said she noticed little
difference in people’s spending
habits, except with one positive
change. “They were shopping about
the same as usual, but we did have a
lot more sales in turkeys than ever
before.”
Jim Lee of Cinnamon Jim’s said
that while business did seem a bit
slower, they did see increased use of
their catering service.
“I think people just might be
staying home more. But that said we
did have a lot more dinners to do,
though this might be because more
people know about us now. So from
our standpoint we will wait and see
what happens next year.”
On the whole, going into the new
year, however, he has noticed a
downturn of about 15 per cent.
With all of the talk of doom and
gloom such a decline was not
unexpected by local businesspeople.
Jim Oldfield of Oldfield’s said the
holiday season was not better than
they had expected for sales and they
particularly noticed a drop in
purchases of big ticket items. “We
didn’t sell nearly the same number
of televisions and computers as we
have other years.”
For a few a down swing wasn’t
bad if you put it into perspective.
Karen Stewart of Blyth Festival said
that while sales of season passes
were down about one per cent from
last year, administration was far
from disheartened.
“Considering the economic times
and the fact that the previous year
we were up this is really good. We
are very encouraged.”
And some were relieved it was no
worse.
Don Scrimgeour of Scrimgeour’s
Food Market said, “With the state of
the economy we were reasonably
pleased. We were pretty much on
target with what we had been hoping
we’d do for Christmas.”
He noted that the stormy days
before the holidays might have been
a bonus for local merchants. “It kept
people closer to home to do their
shopping.”
Whatever the reason, Scrimgeour
said, “things turned out to be fairly
normal for us.”
Janice Peters of The Gift
Cupboard also said Christmas sales
were better than she and her partner
Jennifer Avery had thought they
were going to be. She noticed,
however, that there was a cautious
approach to shopping. “People
really looked before they spent.
They would check things out and
then come back to buy them.”
She feels too, that customers
appreciated the extra touches.
“Things like gift wrapping, that they
don’t get in the city, helps. Little
things can be the key.
Winds
take out
hydro
CitizenTh
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$1.25 GST included Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009
Volume 25 No. 1BABYIT’S YOU - Pg. 11Celebrating the newarrivals of 2008 AGRICULTURE - Pg. 15 Huronia Jerseys capturesprestigious awardSPORTS- Pg. 8Blyth PeeWees play in SilverStick finalsPublications Mail Agreement No. 40050141 PAP Registration No. 09244 Return Undeliverable Items to North Huron Publishing Company Inc., P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, ON N0G 1H0INSIDE THIS WEEK:
Holiday sales on par for some merchants
By Bonnie Gropp
The Citizen
The Huron County Health Unit has
confirmed its first case of Influenza
A for the season in a young adult
Huron County resident.
Influenza, or “the flu,” usually
comes with a high fever, headache,
sore throat, cough, and head/muscle
aches. Most people are sick for two
to seven days, although the cough
can last for weeks.
In seniors and people with chronic
health problems (like lung or heart
disease or diabetes), influenza can
lead to complications such as
pneumonia.
Many people confuse other flu-like
illnesses that cause coughs and
sniffles with true influenza.
Influenza tends to be more serious.
Influenza should not be confused
with the “stomach flu” or viral
gastroenteritis that is also common at
this time of year. Symptoms of
stomach flu usually include vomiting
and diarrhea, not the breathing-
related problems you see with
influenza.
It’s not too late to get a flu shot
from your doctor’s office or the
health unit. Once it arrives, influenza
usually stays around the community
for 10 to 12 weeks. The bug often
keeps many children home from
school and turns up in long-term care
homes.
The health unit recommends that
people stay home if they’re sick to
avoid infecting others and to seek
medical attention if necessary.
Flu hits
Huron
The festive season has come to a
conclusion and OPP say the RIDE
results in Huron County were pretty
positive.
In total, over 28,000 vehicles were
checked in checkpoints, including a
dozen set up from New Year’s Eve
through the weekend. In total, nine
impaired drivers were charged while
another 20 had their licences
suspended for 12 hours due to their
level of alcohol consumption.
During the Festive RIDE season,
Huron OPP also investigated 12
collisions involving personal injury
and another 141 where only property
was damaged. Although there were
numerous collisions in the first four
days of 2009 in Huron County, there
were no life-threatening injuries or
fatalities.
Huron OPP Detachment
Commander Dan Grant reminds
motorists that winter is far from over
and road conditions will continue to
pose challenges for many more
weeks. He urges motorists to
remember that conditions in this
county change very rapidly and
drivers need to remain fully focused
on the task of driving.
RIDE nabs
9 drivers