WINDSOR, ONT. -- Windsor-Essex residents and city crews were dealing with the aftermath of severe storms that moved through the region Wednesday evening, causing downed trees, power lines and damage to some homes.
Here's a photo gallery of the storm and aftermath.
Windsor Fire and Rescue says it attended to over 30 calls, many of them in south Windsor, with many trees and branches down, pulling down power wires with them.
“There were no documented injuries as a result of the storm, civilian or firefighter,” says John Lee, chief fire prevention officer. “There was one accident on Huron Church as a result of the storm.”
Windsor fire activated their storm protocol.
“Because there’s so many calls in different areas at the same time we reduce our man power to each call so we will only send one vehicle and we’ll upgrade if necessary,” says Lee.
The line of severe storms came following several days of humidity and heat.East of Windsor the storms produced two tornados in the London region.
One near the community of Glencoe, southwest of London, and the other near Belmont to the southwest. A third possible tornado was being investigated near Bothwell.
Meanwhile thousands were without power Thursday morning across southwestern and southern Ontario.
Enwin Utilities says locally the storm resulted in 27 calls about tree limbs on wires, 22 calls for wires down, and three poles damaged.
The majority of the damage was in the west and south ends of the city, but there was some further activity in Walkerville.
Most power was restored by 7:30 a.m., but crews remained on site during the day, to finish the longer-term restorations.
As far as city cleanup, forestry says by the end of the Thursday or late Friday morning, all critical cleanup will be completed, such as trees off porches, driveways, road and walkways.
City officials say it could take a solid week or more to attend to the rest of the less critical issues. There were 70 calls for down tree branches, but no calls for flooded basements.
Many residents were also cleaning up on Thursday.
“We have neighbours helping everybody get the branches off the street,” says Mary Arbor, a downtown Windsor resident.
When Arbor saw the storm coming, she told her sister they have to go to the basement.
“I looked out the window, the wind was coming straight down with branches,” adds Arbor.
Jeff, another downtown Windsor resident, says a big tree hit a house.
“This used to be a big beautiful tall tree” he says. “It just lifted right up and hit the corner of her house and fell.”
