Two people were killed and at least two others seriously injured after a powerful thunderstorm tore through Ottawa on Saturday afternoon.
The storm with wind gusts of up to 120 km/h lashed the city, knocking down trees and power lines and damaging homes and other buildings.
Ottawa Police Service insp. Debbie Palmer told reporters Saturday night that one person on the west end of town had died, but she said no further details would be released as officials were still notifying the family.
Later Saturday, Gatineau police said a 51-year-old woman drowned after her boat capsized in the Ottawa River near Masson-Angers. Police were working to contact her family on Saturday night.
Ottawa Chief Paramedic Pierre Poirier told reporters that two people were seriously injured on golf courses and one person was seriously injured in a car accident.
“We got to a Level 0 during the event, but we’re gone,” Poirier said, referring to a state where ambulances aren’t immediately available.
Ottawa Fire Chief Paul Hutt said fire crews responded to 500 calls for downed trees, damaged buildings, fires and downed power lines.
Mayor Jim Watson said the storm affected the entire city.
“We know that the storm has touched every corner of our city,” he said. “Many residents are experiencing power outages. City staff have been deployed and are responding. I ask everyone to be patient.”
As of Saturday night, Hydro Ottawa reported more than 1,000 outages affecting 179,000 customers.
The city’s emergency operations center has been activated to deal with the aftermath of the storm.
Ottawa police say they are deploy additional officers to the hardest-hit parts of the city to help maintain public safety.
MULTI-DAY CLEANING
City staff say it could take several days to clean up all the damage.
Kim Ayotte, general manager of emergency and protective services for the city, said this storm, while brief, had a massive impact.
“The sheer area that has been affected is unlike anything I have seen in my memory,” he said. “We expect the storm cleanup to take several days.”
Joseph Muglia, director of network automation and system operations at Hydro Ottawa echoed Ayotte’s comments.
“We haven’t had a hit like this since the tornadoes,” he said. “This is different because it is so widespread throughout the city.”
Hydro Ottawa Outage Map shows scattered blackouts in Ottawa. Muglia said about half of Hydro Ottawa’s customer base has been affected. Hydro O
“Not only do we have local distribution problems, we have problems with the provincial supplier, a loss of supply to the city,” he said.
hydro one it also reports tens of thousands of customers without power in eastern Ontario.
across the river, Hydro Quebec reported 121,000 customers without electricity in the Outaouais region.
“This will most likely be a multi-day event,” Muglia said. “We are restoring where possible, but that will depend on the provincial supplier and the replacement of downed poles. This is a challenging event.”
Muglia said crews would work at night, though most efforts would be concentrated during the day when it’s safer.
TREES uprooted
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 police said Saturday night that 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 eastbound lanes to traffic.
A tree fell on a person at a golf course, Poirier said, adding that this person was one of two people seriously injured.
Trees also fell on cars and buildings across the region.
Watson said she had heard from many city council members that residents were helping each other after the storm.
“I appreciate the good neighbor approach,” he said.
Ayotte also encouraged residents to check with their neighbors and loved ones if it was safe to do so.
Due to outages, the O-Train Line 1 LRT is offline. Transit customers should take the R1 buses instead. Transit Services General Manager Renée Amilcar told reporters that OC Transpo was working with Hydro Ottawa to restore service on the O-Train as soon as possible.
The severe storm warning for Ottawa ended around 4:40 p.m. and the severe storm watch ended at 4:50 p.m.
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.
– with archives of Colton Praill, CTV News Ottawa
IMAGES OF THE STORM
Reference-ottawa.ctvnews.ca