A major clean-up operation is underway after a powerful storm downed trees and power lines in Ottawa on Saturday afternoon, leaving hundreds of thousands without power.
Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson says the city’s emergency operations center has been activated, with “a full complement of city and hydro equipment clearing roads and subtracting power.”
Ottawa paramedics are asking residents to only call 911 in emergencies, as emergency services field numerous calls across the city.
Ottawa police said Saturday night that one person was seriously injured in the west end of the city. A barn on the west end was destroyed and many people were trapped in vehicles due to live wires on city roads, including 40 drivers on Woodroffe Avenue. Police responded to gas leaks on St. Joseph Boulevard and Presland Road. Downed power lines along Highway 174 near Trim Road forced police to close the road to traffic.
“All available police resources are on the way and more police have been called. Police and crews are assisting those injured or trapped and checking on the welfare of others,” the Ottawa Police Service said in a news release. “Don’t travel if you can help it and drive according to road conditions. Treat downed traffic lights as four-way stops.”
Police are reminding residents to call 311 for downed power lines and not 911, unless someone has been injured.
The storm uprooted trees as it blew through the city. A 120 km/h wind gust was recorded at the Ottawa airport at 3:30 pm The 4:00 pm weather update included a 113 km/h gust. Ottawa police had asked residents to shelter in place when the storm hit.
Ottawa Hydroelectric reports more than 100 outages affecting nearly 120,000 customers citywide. Estimated restoration times range from 10pm Saturday to 8am Sunday. hydro one has reported blackouts in eastern Ontario, including places like Osgoode, Carleton Place and Arnprior.
“Hydro One crews are responding to outages caused by severe thunderstorms hitting southwestern and central Ontario as quickly and safely as possible,” the utility said Saturday.
Hydro Quebec reports that more than 115,000 customers in the Outaouais region lost power as of 6:15 p.m.
Due to outages, the O-Train Line 1 LRT is offline. Transit customers should take the R1 buses instead. OC Transpo also says their website is down.
The severe storm warning for Ottawa ended around 4:40 p.m. and the severe storm watch ended at 4:50 p.m.
“This is a dangerous and life-threatening situation. Widespread and extremely strong wind gusts can destroy buildings with tornado-like damage, flatten large stands of trees, and blow vehicles off the road,” the warnings said.
weather radar showed a storm with heavy rain moving northeast from Michigan and into southern Ontario on Saturday morning, passing through London, Kitchener-Waterloo and Toronto, hitting Ottawa around 3:30 p.m. pm, the strongest part of the storm had moved northeast into Quebec.
the storm claimed at least two lives in southern Ontario.
OTTAWA FORECAST
After the storm moved away from the region, the temperature dropped 12 degrees from 30 C to 18 C, before rising a couple of degrees again in the late afternoon.
The weather forecast for Ottawa includes cloud overnight, bringing a chance of showers and the risk of a thunderstorm with a low of 14C.
Sunday’s forecast is cloudy with a maximum of 18 C and a chance of showers in the afternoon.
The forecast for Victoria Day on Monday is partly sunny with a high of 18C.
IMAGES OF THE STORM
Reference-ottawa.ctvnews.ca