It could have been much worse.
That was the feeling among emergency officials from the municipalities after storms swept through sections of Wellington County early on June 8 and again on June 9.
The storms in the county knocked over and uprooted a huge number of big trees, landing several onto houses and vehicles, snapped branches like twigs, took out power lines, closed roads and caused damage that no official was even willing to estimate.
But, as many local officials noted, there were no injuries reported.
Guelph-Eramosa’s Parks and Recreation Director Robin Milne said on June 10 that 30 trees in that township were taken out or seriously damaged, and 50 more had limbs knocked off. There were road closures, not because trees were across them, but for safety because hydro wires were down.
As for power outages, Milne said those were “spotty,” with hydro out in various places. In some areas the outage lasted 15 minutes to an hour, and in others it was three to four hours.
There was “nothing extended,” he said of that inconvenience.
It was a different story in Centre Wellington Township.
Centre Wellington Hydro General Manager Doug Sherwood said a transformer on County Road 29 southeast of Fergus was knocked out, and that transformer, run by Hydro One, affected power through Elora and right into Waterloo.
He said the main outage occurred in Elora starting at about 1:30am on June 8, and it took Hydro One crews some time to get everything operational again. He said power in many places, including Fergus, was restored by 5am, but in Elora, particularly on Geddes and Princess Street, it took much longer because there were so many trees knocked down that took wires with them.
He said crews worked throughout the night and then up until 9pm on June 8 to clean up the mess and get power restored.
As for the amount of damage the storm caused, Sherwood said, “It’s too early to tell.”
As for the storm the following night, “We were pretty lucky with that,” he said, noting there was much less damage. He said he believes lightning hit a transformer, but there were only some minor repairs to make in that instance.
“There was quite a bit of damage, but it could have been worse,” he said. “There was nobody hurt.”
Sherwood did say he saw a few houses and many vehicles that were struck by falling trees and branches. He added it was fortunate that in a lot of areas there were trees down, but no hydro wires were hit.
There was also another mess to clean up.
“A lot of people had their blue boxes out [in Elora for Wednesday morning pick-up],” Sherwood noted. “It was scattered everywhere.”
Public Works Director Ken Elder said Centre Wellington had “10 to 15 roads closed at one point,” mainly because of downed hydro wires. He said the worst stretch was on the Colborne Street extension out of Elora, from Gerrie Road to Beatty Line on the edge of Fergus, where Hydro One crews had to do “a fair bit of repair.”
He said Friday afternoon, “We’re still working. We were at it all night.”
As for the damage, Elder said, “I couldn’t even give you an estimate. The biggest damage was to mature trees.”
He said some older ones showed signs of rot, and might eventually have to come down. He said houses were hit on Queen and Mills Streets in Elora.
“I think we got away lucky,” Elder said.
In Puslinch Township, Chief Executive Officer Brenda Law said the early morning storm on June 8 knocked down “quite a few trees and a couple of roads were closed because of downed power lines. She said in one case, a woman had four trees on her property blown over.
Law added power was off from 1:30am but for the most part it was back on by 9 or 10pm. She said there were lots of downed trees to clean up, “but no major damage.
“We’re fortunate that way.”
In Erin, Town Manager Lisa Hass said, “It hasn’t been as bad as it was north of us.”
She said there were a lot of trees down by Wednesday morning, and crews were kept busy with the clean-up. Some areas were out of hydro, “but I don’t think it was that bad.”
Mapleton Chief Executive Officer Patty Sinnamon said there were a few branches blown down in the Alma area, but that was about it. She heard of no other major damage.
Wellington North CEO Lori Heinbuch said there were no major power outages there, “just a blip,” that played havoc with the township’s phone system. She added there were “a few trees” down, but no injuries.
In Minto, Fire Chief Chris Harrow, the community’s emergency coordinator, said his town was hit “pretty good.”
He added that Clifford appeared to be the “prime target” with “numerous trees down and some hydro poles snapped off.” One tree there that landed on a house and Public Works crews spent “a good couple of days cleaning up.”
