York Region cleans up after major storm rips through area

YorkRegion.com
April 18, 2014
By Sean Pearce

York Region continues to mop up following Tuesday’s punishing storms.

It was a wild day as the region was hit by severe storms that brought rain, winds and thunder and lightning.

A confirmed tornado touched down in Angus, causing damage there before making it as far east as Mapleview Drive and Essa Road in Barrie, while closer to home, four golfers were injured by a lightning strike while at a course in Whitchurch-Stouffville.

In Markham, along a stretch of Warden Avenue, between 14th Avenue and Masseyfield Gate, a dozen hydro poles were snapped like twigs by what PowerStream’s customer communications manager, John Olthuis, suspects was a wind shear.

The poles fell on top of about 25 cars stuck in traffic, he said, explaining all of the motorists knew enough to remain in their vehicles, so no one was injured.

“It was like a domino effect,” Olthuis said. “It started with one pole and the rest just went down.”

The northbound lanes of Warden were expected to open sometime yesterday, director of traffic management and intelligent transportation system Steven Kemp said, noting the southbound lanes may be closed for several days.

Traffic signals at Warden and Dennison avenues were damaged and repairs will be completed after PowerStream completes its work, he said, adding a number of other signals were impacted by the storm, but were all operational again yesterday morning.

Several calls were received for downed trees in Georgina and flooding of roads in various areas, with Newmarket seemingly hit especially hard, he added.

Due to the situation on Warden, Viva Green and York Region Transit Route 2 is operating on diversion.

The storms knocked out power to about 13,000 customers, Olthuis said. Crews worked all night Tuesday and all day Wednesday to undo the storm’s damage he said, adding three large businesses affected likely won’t have electricity until today.

As for the poles, they were cut into segments for removal, Olthuis said, and PowerStream plans to do a full analysis to determine why they broke. Beyond that, the distribution company experienced a few issues in Barrie and also dealt with a flooded underground transformer near Yonge Street and Hwy. 407.

Although not served by PowerStream, parts of Georgina were also without power for a time.

York EMS noted the number of calls received normally goes up during a severe storm, but didn’t have specific numbers yet, while natural heritage and forestry services manager Ian Buchanan reported that a number of trees had been damaged in Georgina, East Gwillimbury and Vaughan.

The region also reported that all water and wastewater facilities operated as designed with no issues.

In terms of winds, Environment Canada warning preparedness meteorologist Peter Kimbell said the monitoring station at Lester B. Pearson International Airport recorded wind speeds of 85 km/h, while Buttonville Airport in Markham logged 70 km/h. That said, those numbers don’t tell the full tale.

“It seems there were some sporadic downbursts along the link of thunderstorms that would have caused a lot of the damage in the GTA,” Kimbell explained. “These were straight-line winds, downbursts, as opposed to tornadic.”

Beyond the confirmed tornado that cut a path from Angus to southwest Barrie, funnel clouds were reported north of Walkerton and near Hanover but caused no damage.

And while one resident of East Gwillimbury believes a tornado may have formed there as well, Kimbell said the fallen trees and branches there and in Georgina aren’t likely the work of a tornado although it’s possible that investigators may yet have a look.

The station at Pearson measured about 23 mm of rain, while the one at Buttonville counted 29 mm. There isn’t anything particularly noteworthy about either of those figures, Kimbell said, adding the winds were the most extraordinary feature of this week’s storms.