Fierce thunderstorms leave path of destruction across Ontario

A storm system that earlier rocked cottage country moved across the GTA on Wednesday night, bringing with it heavy rains, powerful winds and golfball-sized hail in some areas.

The Kingston Road and Midland Avenue, area saw numerous uprooted trees and collapsed fences.

“We’ve been here over 20 years and nothing like this has ever happend,” remarked resident Doug Sanderson.

In Scarborough, the Major League Sportsplex (3595 St. Clair Ave. E.) collapsed due to the extreme weather.  Luckily no one was inside the dome at the time.   

Huge balls of hail came down in Etobicoke and an uprooted tree crushed a car in Leaside.

In Vaughan, emergency crews battled up to half a dozen fires sparked by lightning strikes.

The roof of a home on Kinloch Crescent was struck, starting a blaze that caused an estimated $200,000 in damages. 

Neighbour Daniel Escudero notified the oblivious homeowners that their house was burning.

“I said, ‘your house is on fire, you’ve got to get out now, now!’ ” he told CityNews. “They were in complete shock, they bailed.  My dad, he went upstairs into all the rooms to make sure everybody was out…it was a massive inferno.”

Vaughan Fire Chief Greg Senay explained how numerous homes went up in flames within a short span of time.

“This (Kinloch fire) is one of about five lightning strikes we had within about 25-35 minutes as that storm cut across Vaughan.”

“It burnt the roof right off the house.”

No injuries were reported at any of the Vaughan fires. 

Earlier Wednesday, a series of thunderstorms resulted in downed trees and damaged property in the Lindsay, Bobcaygeon and Kawartha Lakes areas. Barrie and Orillia were also hit hard.

Heavy damage has been reported in the township of Minden Hills, Ont., with several trees down and power outages on Deep Bend Road.

“All hell brook loose,” recalled Minden resident Howard Smith. “I was terrified, I thought the house was gonna go.”

A large section of cottage country was hit by the system, leaving tens of thousands without electricity.

“Severe thunderstorms continue to cause power outages as they move across the province with 57,000 customers currently without power,” Hydro One tweeted not long after the storms hit. 

That number rose to 1400,000 at one point – with 16,000 in Peterborough and 13,000 in Tweed.  

By 10:30 p.m., Hydro One said there were still 113,336 without power.

Heavy winds overturned a small float plane around 2:30 p.m. on Balsam Lake – north of Lindsay, Ont. – trapping the pilot inside.  The OPP later confirmed the body of Hugh McCullough, a 67-year-old Ennismore man, had been recovered.

There have also been unconfirmed reports of tornadoes touching down in Minden Hills, but CityNews meteorologist Adam Stiles says it’s far too early to confirm anything.  In the meantime, Environment Canada is investigating.

“Nothing has signified that it is for a sure a tornado,” Stiles cautioned.  “It could be straight line winds.”