Tornado May Have Touched Down In Newmarket
Posted July 19, 2006 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Residents in Newmarket don’t need confirmation of the ferocity of Monday’s summer storm — they experienced the fury of Mother Nature first hand — but Environment Canada is nonetheless investigating the weather system further, with mounting speculation that a twister indeed touched down.
Days after the powerful weather system passed through, residents of the area were still talking about it. With gusts of wind reaching between 120 and 150 km/h, it won’t be easy to forget.
“It sounded like a sonic boom went off,” said one resident. “It was very, very loud. I thought, “Holy jeez, must be getting hit with something like a tornado.”
“We started hearing booms and cracks outside and sparks flying like crazy,” adds another. “The hydro poles were breaking off like toothpicks and we ended up with the hydro lines on the roof of the house.”
Hydro One crews have managed to restore power to about 120,000 homes across the province but 50,000 residences are still without electricity.
Crews were out in Newmarket on Wednesday repairing the damage done to hydro poles near Woodbine and Davis Drive, which was one of the several locations hard-hit by Monday’s wind storm.
Power was knocked out in Sudbury and about 9,000 customers in the area still don’t have electricity. It’s the same story for large pockets in the North Bay, Mattawa, New Liskeard and Peterborough areas.
Hydro One spokesman Daffyd Roderick said that while crews are making good progress it could still be a few days before power is restored in all of the affected areas.
About 300 hydro poles were damaged and crews are struggling to repair an estimated 200 kilometres of downed wire.
