High winds cause damage across Waterloo Region
WATERLOO REGION — High winds and thunderstorms blew across Waterloo Region on Friday afternoon, leaving behind local power outages that affected tens of thousands of people.
Across the region, trees were toppled by extreme gusts of wind between 80 and 100 kilometres per hour. City streets came to a crawl as power for traffic lights was cut, and at some intersections the lights crashed to the street below or were badly bent and damaged.
The Weather Network even reported the low possibility of a tornado in the province.
Energy Plus reported outages affecting thousands of homes and properties in Cambridge, Ayr, Roseville and Brantford after a weather warning ended for the area at about 3:50 p.m.
The outage map on the utility’s website showed at one point 2,747 homes were affected in Hespeler, but by about 6:45 p.m. only about 150 were still without power. Another 3,722 were affected in Galt in the early afternoon, but by around 6:30 p.m. that number had climbed to about 5,437. Around Roseville, 414 homes were hit by a power outage. In Ayr, 2,152 were affected.
Kitchener-Wilmot Hydro’s online outage map showed approximately 10,000 costumers were without power in Kitchener at around 6:45 p.m. Friday evening, mostly in the areas of Stanley Park, Eastwood, Bridgeport and Kingsdale. About 1,000 more in Wilmot were powerless, mostly between Baden and Petersburg, along with 685 near Sportsworld Crossing.
A spokesperson from the utility could not be reached for comment, but a recorded phone message indicated crews were “actively working to restore power as quickly as possible, but we expect it will take many hours due to the extent of damage we have experienced.”
Waterloo North Hydro showed
3,229 customers without power in the area around Fischer-Hallman Road South, Erb Street West and University Avenue West.
Another 313 customers in Maryhill were without power. Upwards of 5,000 households in the west end of Waterloo and into Wellesley Township were without power as well.
At the peak of the storm, about 12,000 customers were without power, said Kiel Edge, corporate communications specialist with the utility. He couldn’t say if the storm’s strength caught them by surprise, but added, “we’re always prepared.”
A customer-owned pole line failed in Elmira where 235 were briefly without power after the storm. Power to 177 homes near Hawkesville was quickly restored after a brief outage.
Most affected areas across the region were expected to see power restored within a few hours.