NEWS

Wind gust caused damage in Leaside

A sudden, though short-lived, wind gust swept across Toronto on Oct. 15, knocking down trees and power lines, leaving some residents with power outages that lasted into the next day. More than 20 urgent emergency calls were logged by Toronto Hydro crews.

Traffic lights at some intersections were also  malfunctioning.

In Leaside the most evident damage was the continued toppling of our aging trees.

The fierce wind hit the neighbourhood at about 3:20 p.m. on the Sunday, with the strongest gust lasting only a few minutes.

Wind gust brought down tree
THAT WAS SOME WIND: Neighbours inspect damage caused by part of a tree falling down in Leaside, bringing power lines and covering a vehicle.

Streeter columnist Jeff Walker reports seeing about 40 per cent of a Norway Maple tree that had crashed on Donegall Drive, bringing down power lines, just where he had been walking with children five minutes earlier.

A parked car was heavily damaged by the heavy branches.

He saw another tree down on Bessborough Drive, which also brought down a power line.

A neighbour watching the building storm from his front porch told Walker it was the most horrendous wind gust he’d seen in his 75 years.

This was confirmed by other longtime weather watchers on social media who said they’d never seen a wind and rain cell like that in Toronto before.

Environment Canada clocked the winds at up to 90 kilometres per hour.

Hydro and the city workers arrived around midnight to the Donegall  tree and worked through the night to chop up the branches and restore power by 3:30 a.m. on Monday.

No serious injuries were reported locally.