GTA cleans up after powerful storms sweep through southwestern Ontario
Posted June 18, 2014 8:37 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Hydro crews are working to restore power to thousands of customers throughout the GTA and much of southwestern Ontario after a massive storm system swept through the area Tuesday evening.
About 1,000 Toronto Hydro customers were still without power Wednesday morning.
A tangle of lines came down at Warden Avenue and Denison Street in Markham, catching some drivers in the mess. No one was seriously injured.
PowerStream says most customers in that area had power restored, with about 75 to 80 still waiting to get the lights back on, by Wednesday morning.
Work was delayed by a flooded transformer vault.
Crews will be cleaning up the downed poles and stranded cars at Warden and Denison before installing new poles and reconnecting downed lines, PowerStream spokesperson Debbie Conte said on Wednesday morning.
Conte warns anyone who encounters downed lines to keep their distance and call 911 or the local power provider.
Hydro One said more than 46,000 of its customers were without power at one point on Tuesday night.
Click here to see Hydro One’s outages map.
The same storm system carved a 3,000-kilometre path from the U.S. through the GTA and to parts north of the city.
According to Environment Canada, a tornado touched down in Angus, about 100 kilometres north of Toronto. Officials said 100 homes were damaged.
Provincial police say there were injuries, but most were considered minor.
Essa Township officials declared a state of emergency in Angus so extra resources can be brought in to deal with the storm’s aftermath.
Environment Canada had issued tornado warnings for several communities in the area as a line of severe thunderstorms with embedded tornadoes crawled across the Lake Simcoe region.
Police officers, firefighters and paramedics went door-to-door in the affected area on Tuesday night to make sure no one needed assistance.
With files from The Canadian Press
