

Chris Fox, CP24.com





Heavy winds uprooted trees across the Greater Toronto Area, mangled a construction crane in Mississauga and left thousands of Toronto Hydro customers without power.

A wind warning was issued for the entire GTA and parts of Southern Ontario amid blustery conditions that could see wind gusts top 90 kilometres an hour. The warning was lifted at around 8 p.m.

IN PHOTOS: High winds cause damage across the GTA

At 3:30 p.m., Toronto Fire said that it had responded to 41 weather-related incidents with the majority of those calls for downed wires or transformer fires.

Meanwhile, in Mississauga a badly mangled crane has been reported at a construction site near Erin Mills Parkway and Eglinton Avenue West. No injuries have been reported as a result and Mississauga Fire Chief Tim Beckett tells CP24 that the under construction building next to the crane is not believed to be at risk. Beckett said that the Ministry of Labour has been called in and a structural engineer will be brought to the scene to assess for damage to an underground parking lot.

“We are kind of concerned a little bit about the structural collapse in that zone,” he said.

Outages spread across city

Approximately 21,400 Toronto Hydro customers were in the dark at the height of the wind storm and another 15,000 Alectra Utilities customers were also without power in the Mississauga and Hamilton areas. About 10,000 Alectra Utilities customers were without power in Vaughan but service was restored to that area at around 4 p.m. Alectra Utilities said it expects to fully restore power by later tonight or early Thursday morning.

The outages in Toronto are scattered across the entire city, mostly as a result of downed wires.

Toronto Hydro says that it did bring in extra crews in anticipation of the storm but crews are prioritizing calls where there is a public safety risk for now.

“We have actually seen the number of customers without power increase from about 10,000 to 15,000. It keeps fluctuating as the winds continue to pound the city,” Toronto Hydro spokesperson Tori Gass told CP24 earlier on Wednesday afternoon. “We are having a bit of a delay in restoring power to some of these customers just because the winds are so high that our crews are having to take precautions when going up in the bucket trucks. Sometimes it isn’t safe for them to do so.”

Toronto Hydro said that the outages were particularly prevalent in the following areas:

Whitmore Ave. south to Glenhurst Ave., Northcliffe Blvd. East to Vaughan Rd.

St. Clair Ave. E. south to Lake Ontario, Birchmount Rd. east to McCowan Rd.

Bloor St. W. south to Marion St., Roncesvalles Ave. east to Lansdowne Ave.

North of Bernard Ave. south to Lowther Ave., Brunswick Ave. east to Huron St.

Gass said that the outages were a "direct result" of the blustery conditions.

“A lot of it is forestry damage,” she said.

Roofing has blown off building in west end

The heavy winds began this morning but have intensified throughout the evening.

The winds are likely to blame for a myriad of damage across the city.

Police said that a large piece of roofing flew off a building near Spadina Avenue and College Street on Wednesday afternoon with debris striking several vehicles in the area. Pieces of blowing debris have also struck windows in the Church and Bloor streets areas, according to police.

The winds have had an impact on traffic as well. Ontario Provincial Police say that as many as 50 vehicles have been involved in a pair of collisions on southbound Highway 400 near Bayfield Road in the Barrie area. All southbound lanes were closed for about two hours following the collisions.

“I have certainly seen my fair share of winter weather but this is by far one of the worst storms I have seen impact Barrie and the surrounding area in April,” OPP Const. Peter Leon told CP24. “The conditions are icy and the wind swept snow is making things very difficult for people.”

In Durham Region officials are warning residents to avoid the area surrounding Durham Regional Headquarters on Rossland Road East in Whitby due to “potential danger” from flying roofing debris.

Durham police said that they were dealing with 17 weather-related incidents, including “lights down, flying debris, lights out and trees down.”

“The most important message that I would like to get out is that if you encounter downed wires you need to stay at least 10 metres away from them and call us for help. There is a significant hazard if they are energized on the ground,” Fire Chief Matthew Pegg told CP24. “This is a unique weather event so we are watching carefully. But we are prepared. We will watch, we will monitor and obviously if there is assistance required we will be there to do that.”

Pegg said that he has been informed of gusts that have reached 100 kilometres an hour in parts of the city.

He said that residents need to be “vigilant” and be aware for the possibility of blowing debris as they make their way across the city.

“These are very unique wind speeds. It is about paying attention and being aware of what is going on around you,” he said.

The windy weather is expected to taper off Wednesday evening.

In the meantime, subway trains in Toronto are slowing down when travelling above ground in the case of blowing debris across the track. Some buses are also on diversion due to a downed traffic light poles.

Operations at Billy Bishop Airport have not yet been significantly affected but officials are warning travellers that some flights could be delayed by the heavy winds.

“Our #YTZ crews are working hard to keep flights moving but wind and weather may pose greater challenges into the evening,” a message posted to the airport’s Twitter account on Wednesday afternoon reads. “Ferry may also be affected by wave conditions, so the tunnel may be your best option to access the airport today.