About 6,000 Hydro One customers remain without electricity across southern Ontario, the morning after a violent thunderstorm - and one confirmed tornado - touched down in the region, causing millions of dollars in damage.
A series of storms Tuesday afternoon brought lashing rains and powerful winds, toppling branches, bringing down hydro lines and causing widespread outages. Despite the devastation, no serious injuries were reported.
Early Wednesday, Hydro One officials told CBC News that about 6,000 customers remain without power, with the outages spread over isolated pockets across southern Ontario. Hydro One distributes power for most residents of rural Ontario.
At the height of the storm about 46,000 Hydro One customers were without power.
Toronto Hydro, which supplies the Greater Toronto Area, reported that 1,000 customers were in the dark as of Wednesday morning, down from 12,000 with no power at the height of the storm.
'We're seeing that a lot of limbs on trees have fallen, bringing power lines on the road, poles have been snapped,' said Hydro One spokeswoman Marylena Stey. 'In a lot of cases, the areas aren't safe yet for our crews to access, so we are waiting for roads to be cleaned up and reopened so we can get in and restore power.'
Stey said she expects power will be restored for all Hydro One customers by the end of Wednesday.
Of the 6,000 Hydro One customers without power in the morning, about 4,000 are concentrated in an area near Barrie, located about 100 kilometres north of Toronto. Angus gets worst of it
Worst hit in Tuesday's storms was the town of Angus, about 30 kilometres west of Barrie. A tornado touched down just after 5 p.m. ET Tuesday, blowing out windows, tearing up fences and shearing the roofs off houses.
About 30 homes were damaged and 300 people were forced from the area.
CBC's Natalie Kalata was in Angus on Wednesday morning and said the area is strewn with debris and there's damage everywhere.
'There are sides of homes that are completely missing,' Kalata reported Wednesday on CBC Radio. 'You can see inside bedrooms and kitchens.'
A state of emergency remains in effect in Essa township, an area that includes Angus.
People in Angus have not been allowed to return to their homes. Emergency officials will assess the damage on a house-by-house basis on Wednesday before deciding when they can return.
Damage from the storm is estimated in the millions.
Fire department tells me damage is estimated in the millions #onstorm #Angus #cbcto pic.twitter.com/npkW8SNrIe- Natalie Kalata (@natalie_kalata) June 18, 2014
1000 customers still left without power. Crews will try to restore all by this afternoon.- Toronto Hydro (@TorontoHydro) June 18, 2014
Post By http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/angus-ont-tornado-leaves-thousands-with-no-power-as-cleanup-begins-1.2679248
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