Article content continued

“We can confirm we have seen an increase in cold-related injuries,” said Mandy Gelinas, a spokesperson.

Outside of a few cases of minor frostbite, there haven’t been any critical injuries related to the weather during the last few days, Gelinas said.

The extreme cold continued to play havoc with travellers, with at least half a dozen flights into and out of London International Airport on Thursday – all through Toronto, the nation’s busiest airport – cancelled.

Things such as space heaters, weather stripping and copper coil were “flying off the shelves” at local hardware stores as people tried to keep up with the fallout of the harsh temperatures.

“Furnaces are not keeping up or just breaking, so people are rushing in to get something until they can get them repaired,” said Rob Borshell of Tuckey Home Hardware on Wortley Road.

“Even office workers are finding some of their buildings can’t keep up, so they are throwing a small space heater in their cubicles to keep it a bit warmer.”

The recent spike is helping compensate for low sales on some of these items at the beginning of the season, Borshell said.

“We haven’t really had that bad of a winter, so when these things hit . . . people come rushing in and getting the things they hadn’t bought,” he said.

Thursday night, a low of -26 C is expected, feeling more like -36 C with the wind chill.

Conditions are expected to improve starting Friday and over the weekend when warmer air will settle across the region.

Environment Canada is forecasting a daytime high of -13 C on Friday and -1 C on Saturday before the relatively balmy 6 C on Sunday and 8 C on Monday.

Despite the somewhat favourable forecast, Cosyn Heath says a decision on Friday’s school bus service wouldn’t be made until the morning.

“We always wait to the morning of, so we are looking at the most current and best information available,” she said.