Winds blow in chaos ... and the Colonel takes his knocks
Power outages, shingles fly of roofs, trees bear the brunt
Vicious winds, up to 100 kilometres an hour, whipped through Hamilton and beyond Wednesday.
Trees were felled and branches were sliced off. The gusts caused power outages, ripped the roof off a building and knocked over a fast-food landmark — a big KFC sign standard and bucket that toppled on to a taxi.
Environment Canada issued wind warnings for the area, predicting very strong westerly winds with gusts of up to 90 km/h — and they were right! Scattered flurries also kicked up.
But the good news? The worst has passed, said Dave Rodgers, meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada.
“It’s definitely going to taper off and we should be ending our wind warnings for the area by early evening,” he said late Wednesday afternoon. “By midnight the winds should be 20 kilometres gusting to 40.”
He said a wind speed of 98 kilometres an hour was recorded at Hamilton airport.
Thursday will stay cold and be windy again but not nearly as windy.
“There were a lot of shingles off, quite a few trees down and in Niagara a group of partially built homes was blown down. It was a strong storm that we typically get a couple of in the fall but not usually in the spring, though it’s not unusual to see the snow in April.”
Areas north of Hamilton got some accumulations of snow but in the city, he said, “the wind was the worst of it.”
The wind seemed to be a contributing factor in the power outages that affected the area.
As a west Hamilton power outage was restored, another neighbourhood across the city lost power.
Almost 1,000 customers were affected by the outage Wednesday in west Hamilton, south of Main Street West.
Power went out for another 351 along Woodward Avenue, east of the Red Hill Valley Parkway at 1:42 p.m.
Another 2,457 customers lost power at 2:15 p.m., between Barton Street East and King Street East from Parkdale Avenue South to Lake Avenue North.
And then 5,558 customers in the area bound by Trinity Church Road to Upper Centennial Parkway to King Street West to Rymal Road East of Stoney Creek at 3:30 p.m.
Power was expected to be restored for the latest outage at 10:30 p.m.
High wind gusts appear to have almost knocked a roof off a downtown Hamilton building Wednesday afternoon.
A portion of the roof on the southwest corner of James Street North and Cannon Street is in a “very, very precarious situation,” according to Robert Keleti, who owns nearby Hamilton Jewellers.
“It’s detached and it’s kind of sticking up and another big gust of wind can just create havoc around here,” he said.
Bricks from the wall of the structure have also crumbled onto the sidewalk on Cannon and tar paper has flown into James Street, Keleti added.
Keleti said he believes the building is abandoned.
Police were called to the area just before 1:30 p.m. and were to guard the scene until the city can ensure the structure is safe, said spokesperson Const. Jerome Stewart.
The sidewalk on Cannon is blocked to pedestrian traffic but so far the intersection remains open, he said.
There are no reports of injuries or damaged vehicles so far, Stewart said.
Hamilton police were also on scene at Dundurn Street South and King Street West where the KFC bucket fell down on a taxi.
Overhead wires were down and traffic lights were out in the area.
OPP Sgt. Kerry Schmidt said in a tweet late Wednesday morning that the Burlington Skyway was seeing severe winds, with gusts nearing 60 km/h.
He said trucks with empty trailers were encouraged to use Eastport Drive and Queenston Road as alternates.