The wayward wind: Power outages, major collision as gusts cause havoc

A powerful windstorm sweeping through southern Ontario on Wednesday knocked out power to tens of thousands of people and disrupted travel in the air and on the roads.

Environment Canada issued a wind warning for the region, saying residents should brace for hazardous road conditions.

“Roads may be slippery at times locally this evening and overnight,” the agency said.

“Damage to buildings, such as to roof shingles and windows, may occur.”

Provincial power utility Hydro One said more than 80,000 of its customers were without power Wednesday afternoon, while Toronto Hydro said about 21,000 of its customers were in the dark.

Alectra Utilities said about 15,000 customers were without power in Hamilton and Mississauga.

There were also numerous reports of downed power lines.

Toronto Hydro spokesperson Tori Gass said the blackouts scattered throughout the city were directly related to the wind, which had been gusting upwards of 90 kilometres per hour.

She said extra crews had been on standby and were working to fix the downed lines.

In a statement online, Hydro One said the community of Minden was hit hard by the storm, with more than 12,000 outages reported Wednesday afternoon.

The high winds affected more than 84,000 customers, the statement said.

“It is expected that the high winds will continue throughout the evening, increasing the potential for further damage. Where safe, Hydro One crews are out assessing damage and restoring power to customers.”

Meanwhile, provincial police said up to 50 vehicles were involved in a major collision on a busy highway north of Toronto.

OPP Sgt. Kerry Schmidt said on Twitter there were no serious injuries in the crash on Highway 400 near Barrie, which he said “appears weather-related.”

Elsewhere, a pedestrian was hit by a tree knocked down by the wind.

Const. Adam Donaldson with Belleville police said the person was taken to hospital with minor injuries.

“It’s wind anarchy in our city right now, there are trees falling down everywhere,” Donaldson said.

The fierce winds caused a crane to partially collapse in Mississauga.

Const. Bally Saini, a spokesperson with Peel Regional Police, said no injuries were reported, but officers were on scene to ensure no one would be hurt as crews worked to stabilize the crane.

The windstorm also caused problems in the air and slowed the rate of landings at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport.

“There are a few delays on account of the weather but planes are still arriving and departing,” said Natalie Moncur, a spokesperson for the Greater Toronto Airports Authority.

Toronto’s downtown Billy Bishop airport tweeted that “crews are working hard to keep flights moving, but wind and weather may pose greater challenges into the evening.”

Toronto Fire Chief Matthew Pegg told reporters that crews were dealing with 30 to 40 active incidents.

Those incidents included such things as fallen wires, transformer fires and tree fires — at any one time.