Cleanup continues after storm knocks out power, damages trees in Ottawa

Power slowly returned to homes and businesses in Ottawa and Gatineau on Saturday, as the cleanup continued following Friday's severe thunderstorm that had tennis ball-sized hail and strong winds.

Trees and hydro infrastructure were damaged when the storm hit the national capital region between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. on Friday.

"The weather was intense; some hail, wind," Michael Walsh said while cleaning up his property in Carlingwood on Saturday. The storm downed a large maple tree onto his home, damaging the roof and deck.

"It was probably uprooted and then it fell."

As of 5:15 p.m., Hydro Ottawa reported 470 customers remained without power.

"As crews performed restoration work and moved into impacted neighbourhoods, they discovered extensive damage that slowed down efforts, including large trees on our overhead infrastructure, downed power lines, broken conductors and transformers on fire due to lightning strikes," Hydro Ottawa said in a statement to CTV News Ottawa.

The utility says if there is damage to electrical equipment on a property, it's the homeowner's responsibility to repair the damage.

"If this is the case, the homeowner may need to make repairs to their equipment via a certified electrician before Hydro Ottawa is able to reconnect power." 

On Friday night, more than 13,000 customers were without power across the city of Ottawa.

Hydro Quebec is reporting 2,129 customers without power in Gatineau late Saturday afternoon. Power has been restored to more than 2,000 customers in Papineau.

Hydro One reported more than 24,000 customers in the Orleans, Cumberland, Clarence-Rockland and Fournier areas were without power following Friday's storm. Power had been restored by Saturday morning.

The city of Ottawa has two community centres open for residents to charge devices.

• Pinecrest Community Centre
• Nepean Sportsplex

Environment Canada issued a series of severe thunderstorm watches and warnings for Ottawa and eastern Ontario on Friday, calling for large hail and wind gusts up to 90 km/h.  A tornado warning was briefly issued for Ottawa Friday evening.

Between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. Friday, residents reported strong winds, hail and rain across west Ottawa. The storm forced drivers on the Queensway to slow down due to hail, heavy rains and reduced visibility.

Environment Canada says the thunderstorm brought "very large hail, strong winds and heavy rain" to the area. Hail the size of a tennis ball and wind gusts of up to 70 km/h was reported.

Damage has been reported in Ottawa from Riverside Drive at Mooney's Bay to Alta Vista, Carlington and Westboro.  Residents shared photos of large pieces of hail and damage to trees and properties. Several trees and street signs were damaged along Riverside Drive.

Coun. Riley Brockington reported "extensive damage" in the Revelstoke Drive area, near the Rideau River.

"On similar ground as the derecho," Brockington said.

The storm knocked down tree branches on several streets, including a giant tree falling onto a car along Fisher Avenue.  

"The winds hit, blew it sideways and hit the passenger side first and collapsed the passenger side right down and blew out the glass and windshield," Paul Nichols said, who was able to escape from the backseat without any injuries.

"I was trying to protect myself from the hail, not thinking of the wind."

Large hail was also reported in the Luskville, Que. area.

In Gatineau, city officials warned tree branches might have fallen onto roads and properties. Crews have been deployed to cleanup the areas.

No injuries have been reported.

Western University's Northern Tornadoes Project says it has not received any reports of a tornado or significant damage in Ottawa from the storm, besides downed trees, but it will continue to investigate.

Northern Tornadoes Project executive director David Sills told Newstalk 580 CFRA they did receive one photo of a funnel cloud.

Redblacks game

The Ottawa Redblacks game was delayed for approximately an hour due to severe weather Friday night.

Heavy rain began falling at kickoff, and the game was delayed in the first quarter.

The Hamilton Tiger-Cats beat Ottawa 16-12.

With files from CTV News Ottawa's Jackie Perez