Power continues to be restored across Ontario after damaging wind storm

Parts of southern and central Ontario are still without power after a dangerous and damaging wind storm moved across the region on Sunday.

At its peak, Hydro One reported almost 240,000 homes and businesses without power, with areas in southwestern Ontario the hardest hit.

“Crews continue to respond as quickly and safely as possible to a significant number of outages caused by today’s windstorm. Customers in the hardest hit areas will be without power overnight. We appreciate your patience,” the utility said in an update Sunday night.

Hydro crews continue to diligently work to restore power to the areas that remain in the dark.

Locally, Toronto Hydro reported multiple outages across the city affecting upwards of 6,000 customers, mostly in East York and parts of Scarborough on Sunday. The utility said power was restored to both areas just after midnight.

Environment Canada had issued wind warnings over a stretch of southern Ontario spanning from Windsor to Kingston as a cold front brought very strong southwest winds with gusts of between 90 to 110 km/h.

Wind gusts of 91 km/h were reported out at Toronto Pearson Airport while gusts of 118 km/h were recorded at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport on the Toronto Islands.

The strong winds caused tree branches to break.

Literally “breaking” news….A massive gust of wind with thunder and rain just came through Cambridge and broke off half of our willow tree. Fence smashed but no thankfully no one was around, and damage to neighbours’ beyond torn eavestrough. @680NEWSweather @680NEWS @570NEWS pic.twitter.com/8ILF78iCGc

— Mark Douglas (@DouglasCityNews) November 15, 2020

Police forces across the GTA along with first responders reported being overwhelmed by calls for trees and power lines down across a number of roadways as well as traffic light outages.

So far, no injuries have been reported.

Shoreline flooding was also a concern with those southwest winds, particularly along the north shore of Lake Erie where waves up to 25 feet were possible Sunday evening.

I have never seen waves like this on Lake Ontario. Stay away from the shoreline #onstorm @680NEWS @CityNews pic.twitter.com/YPkb51rvUe

— Michelle Mackey (@michellemackey) November 15, 2020

Gusty conditions are expected to continue throughout Monday but nothing compared to Sunday.

After yesterday's historic wind storm, gusty conditions near 60 km/h continue today with cooler temps #layerup pic.twitter.com/T0tAfdVdCR

— Natasha Ramsahai (@CityNatasha) November 16, 2020