Summer storm strikes

The first major summer storm to hit the region rolled into the district last night with loud and low rumbling thunder, high winds and the blaring of emergency sirens.
According to Environment Canada and the Weather Network last night, severe thunderstorm warnings were issued for much of the Rainy River district, including the possibility of large hail, heavy rain, and high winds with the development of tornados.
As of press time, no tornados or funnel cloud formations in the district could be confirmed.
However, the storms still wreaked havoc.
According to Hydro One, several areas were left without power for short periods of time, including parts of Fort Frances. For some customers, the wait to restore power is still on.
“For Fort Frances [and the district] the first interruptions began around 6:30 p.m. [last night],” said Kim McLennan of Hydro One’s media relations team this morning.
“Approximately 100 customers remain without power.
“We do expect to have all those customers restored by 3 p.m.,” she continued.
Those effected by the outages live in the townships of Rainy River, Chub Lake, Crystal Lake, Banning Lake, Flemming, Senn, Perch Lake, Niobe Lake and Baker.
She explained that the strong winds that accompanied the storm system caused most of the damage by knocking down trees and interrupting service.
“Additional crews have been brought in from Dryden for the Fort Frances area,” McLennan said, adding that the crews were needed to help clear tress and equipment for “greater access” and to “get restoration efforts going faster.”^“There was a great deal of storm damage [yesterday] in our entire area,” she said of the Hydro One area in Northwestern Ontario.
“[Fort Frances] was not hit as hard as Kenora and Thunder Bay.”^McLennan said that the summer months always cause more problems for Hydro crews, but they expect these kinds of disruptions.
“The crews are prepared for this weather,” she said of severe summer storms like the one that hit the area last night.