Cleanup continues after storm knocks out power, damages trees in Ottawa

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Hydro Ottawa continues to make progress to restore power to customers across the city, as the cleanup continues following Friday’s thunderstorm that damaged trees and knocked out electricity to homes and businesses.

As of 12 p.m., Hydro Ottawa reported 1,200 remain without power, with the main outages in the Mooney’s Bay area, Woodpark, Parkwood Hills, McKellar Park, McKellar Heights and Woodroffe area.

“As crews performed restoration work and moved into impacted neighbourhoods, they discovered extensive damage that slowed down efforts, including large trees on our overhead infrastructure, downed power lines, broken conductors and transformers on fire due to lightning strikes,” Hydro Ottawa said in a statement to CTV News Ottawa.

The utility says if there is damage to electrical equipment on a property, it’s the homeowner’s responsibility to repair the damage.

“If this is the case, the homeowner may need to make repairs to their equipment via a certified electrician before Hydro Ottawa is able to reconnect power.” 

On Friday night, more than 13,000 customers were without power across the city of Ottawa.

“While the worst of the weather has passed, and several customers have been restored, Hydro Ottawa advises that this is a multi-day restoration situation due to the extent of the damage from downed power lines and trees,” Hydro Ottawa said in a statement Saturday morning.

“At this time, there are still some larger pockets of customers without power, as well as many smaller areas affected that will, unfortunately, take longer for hydro crews to reach. Priority is placed on repairs that pose serious safety hazards first, and restoring power to critical infrastructure such as emergency services, hospitals, water and sewage treatment plants, schools and larger neighbourhoods of customers, followed by smaller impacted areas.”

Hydro One reported more than 24,000 customers in the Orleans, Cumberland, Clarence-Rockland and Fournier areas were without power following Friday’s storm. Power has been restored on Saturday morning.

Hydro Quebec is reporting 5,234 customers without power in Gatineau and 2,000 customers in the dark in Papineau on Saturday afternoon.

The city of Ottawa has two community centres open for residents to charge devices.

• Pinecrest Community Centre
• Nepean Sportsplex

Environment Canada issued a series of severe thunderstorm watches and warnings for Ottawa and eastern Ontario on Friday, calling for large hail and wind gusts up to 90 km/h.  A tornado warning was briefly issued for Ottawa Friday evening.

Between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. Friday, residents reported strong winds, hail and rain across west Ottawa. The storm forced drivers on the Queensway to slow down due to hail, heavy rains and reduced visibility.

Damage has been reported in Ottawa from Riverside Drive at Mooney’s Bay to Alta Vista, Carlington and Westboro.  Residents shared photos of large pieces of hail and damage to trees and properties. Several trees and street signs were damaged along Riverside Drive.

Coun. Riley Brockington reported “extensive damage” in the Revelstoke Drive area, near the Rideau River.

“On similar ground as the derecho,” Brockington said.

The storm knocked down tree branches on several streets, including a giant tree falling onto a car along Fisher Avenue.  

“Just as I was driving by I saw the branches blocking Fisher Avenue,” Ian Lawford said, noting the tree also knocked down hydro wires.

Large hail was also reported in the Luskville, Que. area.

In Gatineau, city officials warned tree branches might have fallen onto roads and properties. Crews have been deployed to cleanup the areas.

No injuries have been reported.

Western University’s Northern Tornadoes Project says it has not received any reports of a tornado or significant damage in Ottawa from the storm, besides downed trees, but it will continue to investigate.

Northern Tornadoes Project executive director David Sills told Newstalk 580 CFRA they did receive one photo of a funnel cloud.

Redblacks game

The Ottawa Redblacks game was delayed for approximately an hour due to severe weather Friday night.

Heavy rain began falling at kickoff, and the game was delayed in the first quarter.

The Hamilton Tiger-Cats beat Ottawa 16-12.