Roughly 3,600 Hydro One customers in Rainy River District had their power interrupted Wednesday afternoon due to strong northwest winds and heavy rain caused by a passing cold front, Hydro One reported.
“It was all caused by the storm that hit the northwest [Wednesday] afternoon. When you get winds of those velocity, it causes a lot of tree damage, and consequently, damage to the power lines,” Hydro One media relations officer Al Manchee said Thursday morning.
“There were some pretty strong winds, probably 70-80 km/h [43.5-50 m.p.h.],” he added. “Definitely a nasty storm.”
The U.S. National Weather Service said the average wind speed Wednesday was 23.5 km/h (14.6 m.p.h.), with gusts up to 72 km/h (45 m.p.h.). There was a two-minute period of time where it was sustained at 50 km/h (31 m.p.h.).
“Access can be a problem when this happens in low population areas where lines are cross-country and don’t necessarily go along roads,” noted Manchee. “Sometimes you can only get to the lines on foot.”
The power interruptions in the district occurred around 12:20 p.m. after the rain and wind knocked trees onto power lines in several areas.
Areas affected included Fort Frances, Atwood, Aylsworth, Barwick, Big Grassy, Big Island, Burriss, Carpenter, Crozier, Curran, Dance, Devlin, Dilke, Dobie, Emo, La Vallee, Lake Despair, Lash, Manitou Rapids, Mather, McCrosson, and Mine Centre.
Miscampbell, Morley, Morson, Nelles, Niobe Lake, Patullo, Pratt, Rainy Lake #17 FN, Rainy River, Roddick, Roseberry, Sabaskong Bay, Seine Rover, Shenston, Sifton, Spohn, Sutherland, Tait, Tovell, Umbach, Washagamis, White Dog, Woodyatt, and Worthington also were affected.
Manchee noted the whole region was hit by the high winds, with some Hydro One customers in the Kenora, Dryden, and Thunder Bay areas also losing power Wednesday.
Hydro One crews were dispatched and power was restored to about 2,100 customers in the district by 3 p.m. All customers in the Fort Frances, Dryden, and Kenora areas had their power restored by mid-evening, said Manchee.
But about 3,900 Hydro One customers in the Thunder Bay area went without power overnight, he added, with crews continuing to work at restoring their service Thursday morning.
An estimated total of about 32,000 hydro customers lost power at some point Wednesday (7,000 in the Fort Frances, Kenora, and Dryden districts combined and 25,000 in Thunder Bay).
Manchee noted this is the first incident on this scale so far this summer, and likely the most widespread series of power outages he’s seen in the region since the summer of 2002, when the area was besieged by lightning strikes, torrential downpours, and high winds.
In Fort Frances, several trees came crashing down due to the strong winds, keeping Fort Frances Power Corp. and Public Works crews busy.
Public Works crews started responding to calls around noon to clean up felled trees and branches on town property,” town transportation superintendent Milt Strachan said.
“It was not a usual day,” he remarked. “But it was nothing we couldn’t handle.”
He noted he was aware of four trees that went down on town property—one at the corner of Second Street East and Colonization Road East that hit a truck, one at the Legion Park, one at First Street East and Colonization Road East, and another on the 1300 block of Elizabeth Street.
Strachan added a few other trees on private property also fell over yesterday, but added he wasn’t aware of any significant damage caused in town by fallen trees.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
