A STORM’S FURY
A woman who was married under this giant oak in the arboretum off Prince of Wales Drive surveys the damage wrought by the brief but intense thunder storm that tore across Ottawa on Wednesday. At least two people were injured, one critically.
A 37-year-old woman was critically injured when she was struck by a falling tree toppled in the brief, intense thunderstorm that swept through Ottawa on Wednesday afternoon, leaving a trail of damage.
The woman was injured on Smyth Road, near The Ottawa Hospital’s General Campus, and treated by paramedics for “multisystems trauma.”
Staff from the hospital helped move the tree off the woman and began performing CPR before she was taken to the hospital with a police escort. She was in critical condition on Wednesday night.
The storm struck around 3:30 p.m., bringing with it powerful winds, torrential rain and a pounding of hail in some parts of the city.
In addition to downed trees, the storm damaged power lines and flooded streets. It tore the roof off a small apartment building on Carling Avenue in what shaken residents described as an intense microburst.
The storm also severely damaged one of the city’s most beloved trees, the Bebb’s Oak at the Dominion Arboretum. Known as Ardeth’s tree — and more than a century old — it bears a plaque honouring Ardeth Wood, a 27-year-old Ottawa graduate student who was murdered while riding her bike in the east end of the city in 2003. The plaque reads: “Her death touched the heart of a city.”
Hydro Ottawa reported “multiple outages” as falling trees and limbs brought down wires across the city. The blackouts knocked out traffic lights, snarling traffic in the afternoon commute.
The west end was hit particularly hard. Trees along Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway were “devastated,” according to a tweet from former city councillor Alex Cullen.
In Britannia Village, fallen trees and limbs were draped across houses and blocking roads.
A 56-year-old man who was struck by a tree in the village suffered broken ribs and was taken to hospital, said Marc-Antoine Deschamps of Ottawa Paramedic Service.
Assad Assad was working on a paving job when the storm struck. He and other workers bolted for the safety of his dump truck.
“We could feel the wind picking up, then the rain started, and then, boom!” Assad said.
He watched as a towering pine tree fell down across Kehoe Street directly onto a parked white pickup truck.
“It was intense,” Assad said. “Like a mini-tornado.”
The storm gave several workers on a construction site on Croydon Avenue a terrifying ride when the wind sent their suspended platform swinging out of control. Other workers secured the stage to a fifthfloor balcony of the highrise. There were no injuries and the Ministry of Labour is investigating.
Another giant tree fell across a house on Britannia Road, dragging down power lines and blocking the street.
Firefighters were sent to Britannia Beach for reports of an overturned sailboat. Three occupants made it safely to shore.
Residents of 1885 Carling, the 12unit building where the roof was blown off, described a wall of wind and debris flying everywhere and a banging sound when the roof was lifted off by the wind.
Victoria Chellow, who had just crossed Carling to go to the McDonald’s restaurant across the street, said she looked back and saw debris everywhere. “Then I saw my roof pretty well get ripped off its hinges. I was in shock.”
She ran back to help drag pieces of the roof and debris off Carling Avenue where it had been blown and to check that other residents were safe. A few apartments had water damage, but no one was injured.
As the sky cleared Wednesday evening, residents sat outside the building marked by caution tape, eating pizza donated by a nearby Gabriel’s Pizza store. What was left of the roof hung dramatically over the front of the building.
Tree damage was also reported in Alta Vista, some sheared by lightning, others uprooted by wind.
Bruce Fanjoy, who drove by the arboretum after the storm, said he was heartbroken to see the damage to Ardeth’s tree.
A major branch was broken, he said. “It is sad to see that. It is a special, special tree.”
Ardeth’s father, Brenden Wood, said he has spent some time sitting under the tree and it meant a lot to his son Crispin, who worked at the Experimental Farm and was involved in having the plaque placed on the tree.