Major damage in Northwestern Ontario after Sunday’s severe storm

Hydro workers and emergency responders are still cleaning up after Sunday night’s severe thunderstorm in northwestern Ontario, with high winds, heavy downpours and reports of tornado activity near Sioux Narrows-Nestor Falls.

Members of the Kenora OPP and Sioux Narrows-Nestor Falls Fire and Rescue were on the scene of Caliper Lake Provincial Park after multiple trees fell on campers and vehicles and blocked roadways after the storm.

The park has since been evacuated while the damage is being assessed, and thankfully no injuries have been reported at this time. The OPP says travel in the Nestor Falls area should be limited due to trees and wires being down in the area.

Hydro One is reporting a number of outages in the region. They include 470 customers being without power in Nestor Falls and 370 without power south of Nestor Falls, two small outages have been reported near Clearwater Bay, while 670 customers are without power between Lac Seul and Sioux Lookout.

Environment Canada Meteorologist, Steven Filsfeder, explains that staff are still looking into reports of damage caused by the storm, which includes property damage, downed trees and hydro poles, and a possible damaged aircraft in the Nestor Falls area.

Filsfeder says they recorded at least 15 to 20 millimetres of rain from the storm system, as well as winds as high as 65 kilometres per hour at the Kenora Airport. He notes more storm activity is expected to continue over the coming days.

“Looking like it could be pretty active for northwestern Ontario as a whole. We’re still in the mix for possible severe weather possible today and tomorrow as a low-pressure system comes up from the United States and will cross northwestern Ontario over the next couple of days.”