Major storm moved through the capital leaving damage and power outages
Posted Jul 20, 2013 09:15:55 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OTTAWA – Environment Canada issued weather watches and warnings for much of the province Friday with active weather storming through the region.
The storm moved through the Ottawa Valley just after 1 p.m. leaving a trail of destruction behind in hard-hit Petawawa.
The heavy rain, wind, and lightning, moved east, into the capital area around 3 p.m.
Some areas saw thunder and lightning, hail, high winds, heavy rain, resulting in flooded areas, damaged power lines, and even injuries.
The clean-up begins Saturday morning with the initial assessment of the damage.
Hundreds of thousands of people are still without power from the Ottawa Valley to southern Ontario, even into Quebec.
In The Valley, Hydro One reported just under 13,000 customers are still without power.
High winds, torrential rain and hail rocked The Capital during Friday’s drive home.
With each wave of the storm pedestrians were rushing to get indoors meanwhile, drivers like Sam were watching the light show from their vehicles.
Sam called the 1310 Newsroom and said he watched the power go out in the east end as he was driving past the Museum of Science and Technology on St. Laurent.
“It looked like a lightning bolt but I’m not sure because it happened so fast. I saw this big white flash from the transformer and the transformer blew.”
“And since that blew everything out. It looks like the whole area is out of power. I don’t see lights on anywhere. No street lights. No nothing,” Sam said.
At times the rain was so heavy during the drive home, that people on the Highway 417 couldn’t see through their windshields and they were pulling over.
The active weather disrupted business at the Ottawa airport Friday causing flight delays and cancellations.
Cirque du Soleil’s 7:30 p.m. performance of ‘Totem’ at the Canadian Tire Centre was cancelled on Friday due to the weather, and officials say that ticket holders will be contacted to reschedule.
The Sound and Light show on the hill “Mosaika” was called Friday night as well.
Around 25,000 homes and businesses remain in the dark near Outaouais, QC., as the storm affected a large area of southwestern Quebec.
A 21 year old woman was killed in Boucherville, QC., after a tree branch fell on the city worker during the storm Friday.
Crews are working hard Saturday to restore power to the affected areas beginning with the largest regions before heading to smaller pockets. Approximately 150,000 homes and business in Niagara, Hamilton, Burlington and Oakville are still without power Saturday morning.
