Wild Storm

Around four this afternoon we had one very scary storm. Some of our neighbours had seen a funnel cloud and there was a great deal of damage to property around my neighbourhood. On my street we had many shinglesblown off roofs, chairs and tables tossed around like toys, fences toppled and on my house I lost some fascia.

More significantly hydro poles and light standards toppled over cutting power to our house and much of Thornhill. Bathurst Street is still closed five hours later as is Bayview Avenue and Yonge and Keele Streets.

Traffic was horrendous. You can see a pole that had fallen on top of a car in the picture to the right (I had to use my cell phone camera - sorry about the poor quality).


The police had completely blocked off access from our street to Bathurst because of the hydro lines that were lying on the road. We could not even cross Bathurst Street on foot because of the danger posed by the wires. One of my neighbours had made it home from work as far as the other side of the street and couldn't drive or even walk the last few hundred metres because of the wires. I of course was out there directing traffic trying to help people who had been forced off Bathurst into my neighbourhood - trying to find some way to get past all the closures.

The loose facsia means a bit more work for me. I wanted to go out right away to get some replacement fascia but of course the roads were all blocked and I couldn't get through. Let's hope I can do it tomorrow. The other thing that happened was that I was preparing my taxes this afternoon - on the computer just as the power went off. Fortunately I had been saving frequently and didn't lose any work of significance. The power came back on in time for me to finish them off tonight. I will "Netfile" tomorrow.

The one really good thing about the storm is that it brought all the neibhbours out. We were all standing outside talking and complaining for hours. It was so nice to see many of them again after a long cold winter. It's amazing what a little storm can do!