A powerful storm downed trees and power lines in Ottawa on Saturday afternoon, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power.
“Environment Canada forecasters are tracking a very dangerous thunderstorm capable of producing destructive wind gusts and tonie-sized hail,” Environment Canada said as the storm moved on.
Ottawa police asked residents to shelter in place as the storm hit.
Ottawa paramedics are asking residents to only call 911 in emergencies, as emergency services field numerous calls across the city.
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 Hydroelectric reports scattered blackouts affecting more than 119,000 customers in the city. hydro one has reported blackouts in eastern Ontario, including places like Osgoode, Carleton Place and Arnprior. Downed power lines along Highway 174 near Trim Road forced police to close the road to traffic.
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 shows a storm with heavy rains 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. There are reports of injuries in Ottawa, but CTV News is waiting for more details from Ottawa paramedics.
The storm has also left tens of thousands of Hydro One Clients throughout southern Ontario.
“Hydro One crews are responding to outages caused by severe storms hitting southwestern and central Ontario as quickly and safely as possible,” says the utility.
OTTAWA FORECAST
Temperatures are expected to drop after the storm passes through the region.
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