Thousands without power after storm
Thousands of people were left without power in Peterborough County after a short but fierce thunderstorm moved through the area late Wednesday afternoon.
About 7,383 Hydro One customers east of the city in the Otonabee-South Monaghan, Douro-Dummer and Asphodel-Norwood township areas were affected, but there were a few other small isolated outages in other parts of the county.
Hydro One estimated full restoration of power to the customers by 1 a.m. Thursday.
The outage also impacted Peterborough Utilities customers in Norwood.
Meanwhile about 300 Peterborough Utilities customers in the city’s north end were left without power after the lightning storm.
Peterborough Utilities dispatched crews around 4:30 p.m. and power was restored by about 6 p.m.
The north-end outage was blamed on a fallen tree.
The storm also felled another tree on Summerhill Drive in the city’s north end, but it did not take out power there.
The Trent-Severn Waterway briefly halted operation of Lock 23 Otonabee due to the lightning. The snack bar at the Riverview Park and Zoo was also shut because of the lightning.
The skies quickly turned sunny and many evening events in Peterborough, including the Peterborough Musicfest concert, the Warsaw Cruise Night and some baseball games, went ahead as usual.