Wind storm leaves thousands without power in Ottawa

[David Baxter PhD]

Wind storm leaves thousands without power in Ottawa
CBC News
May 5, 2018

Winds reached close to 100 km/h causing damages to trees, vehicles


The wind storm on May 4, 2018 caused damage to vehicles, fences and trees, including this one in Nepean. (Ian Jack)

A severe wind storm that blew through the Ottawa-Gatineau region Friday night caused flight delays, damage to trees and vehicles and left thousands without power. About 9,000 people in Ottawa and 23,748 in the Outaouais region are still without power.

At around 10 p.m. Friday, gusts of up to 90 km/h were blowing over the National Capital Region as a result of a cold front. At approximately 11 p.m., winds reached close to 100 km/h in Ottawa and caused trees to fall on network equipment overnight.

Hydro Ottawa says restoration efforts will be lengthy because crews need to deal with downed trees and obstacles on a house-by-house basis.

Power restoration is expected to continue throughout the day and into the evening. More than 45,000 customers were out of power at the height of the storm, according to Hydro Ottawa.

Morning after the storm
There have been no reports of any death or serious damages in the Ottawa-Gatineau area but the wind is being blamed for at least two deaths in southern Ontario.

The gusts left tens of thousands of people without power across Ontario and Quebec.

• High winds in southern Ontario area leave 2 dead, and more than 100,000 without power
• Over 190,000 still without power in Ontario after high winds batter province

On Saturday morning, residents in the Ottawa-Gatineau region woke up to trampolines, trees, signage and parts of fences scattered across roads and yards.

Here is what they found.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Power flickered several times at my place and the wind certainly rattled windows and walls here on the 7th floor (Mindy the cat was not impressed at all) but we didn't lose power here.

This was a very large storm that hit much of eastern Canada and the eastern US. I think other parts of Ontario may have been hit harder than Ottawa, and I saw one story in a northeastern state indicating they were hit very hard as well.

How did you manage with this storm?

 

[Retired]

How did you manage with this storm?

Added extra glue to my toupé

 

[GaryQ]

Good one Steve,

Crazy weather this year... New Brunswick hitting record floods...
Meanwhile in Manitoba we're in a drought. Fields are dry. snowfall was minimal and we have only gotten a few drops of rain a couple days ago since the last snowfall almost 2 months ago.

 

[forgetmenot]

My power just came on it has been off for 15hrs all kinds of roofs missing their shingles and siding off houses. Lots of trees down my road still is being blocked because of huge tree down. At least my buildings were not affected and it was not to cold last night had wood burning fire place and today cooked lunch on barbecue. Now i can do my laundry and hang it out to dry now power is finally on. The wind was very scary.

 

[GaryQ]

Good to hear you guys are all OK in spite of the storm!