'Worst winds I’ve ever seen ... non

Storm that hammered south, southwestern Ontario leaves 'significant' damage, outages as cleanup continues

'It was the worst winds I’ve ever seen. It was this non-stop roar,' says Harlock resident

Severe thunderstorm rushes through downtown Kitchener on Wednesday

Communities across southern and southwestern Ontario are dealing with the aftermath of a massive storm that caused flooding, damage to homes and trees, and power outages.

On Wednesday, Environment Canada issued a severe thunderstorm and tornado warning for much of the south, including in Waterloo region, Guelph, London and Toronto.

The massive storm damaged properties and businesses, homes, trees and traffic lights, including in Kitchener and Waterloo.

Toronto fire crews rescued people trapped on scaffolding and in elevators after '100-year storm'

Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic asked for patience during city cleanup efforts.

"As of 9:30 p.m. last night, our contact centre received more than 100 calls and emails regarding downed trees, debris and more," Vrbanovic said in a post on X.

"Crews worked late into the evening to address issues, prioritizing clearing roadways, then driveways, then sidewalks, and will continue with less urgent areas this morning."

Wellesley Mayor Joe Nowak said there was "significant" damage in his community.

"I was told there were five barns that have been destroyed, not totally destroyed ... apparently there were no injuries, no animals were hurt," Nowak told CBC News.

Nowak said there were also big hits to the township's regional housing unit, forcing the displacement of some residents.

"I’ve been in touch with the region on that issue and they’ve had at least four residents … that have to be moved to another accommodation, at least temporarily."

'The worst winds I’ve ever seen'

Waterloo resident Jack Meilleur said the winds came "out of the blue." He was looking out his bedroom window when he saw white everywhere.

Meilleur said the wind lasted about 10 minutes, flipping over his gazebo, breaking off large branches from a tree in his backyard and displacing the furniture in his yard.

His next-door neighbour's backyard looked almost untouched, and Meilleur believes that's because the wind was a tornado touching down.

David Sill, director of the Northern Tornadoes Project (NTP), said in an email to CBC News that they're continuing to receive and analyze reports, but "there's no credible evidence that a tornado occurred with the storms in southwestern Ontario."

Sill said a survey team will travel to the Brodhagen area, just north of West Perth, where the worst damage appears to have occurred.

Areas on a line east of Goderich were hit particularly hard, with many reports of damage to structures.

Sally Rhoads-Heinrich lives on a farm near Harlock, about 20 kilometres north of Seaforth.

"We started to get the alerts, the air became very still and just this wall of wind hit us," she told CBC News. "It was the worst winds I’ve ever seen. It was this non-stop roar. I said to my husband, ‘Somebody is definitely losing a roof.'"

Her property didn’t receive heavy damage, but neighbours just a kilometre away shared photos and reports of damage to roofs, trees and fences.

"There’s a lot of broken trees, some people lost the roofs of their sheds, collapsed buildings. There is a lot of debris on the road," Rhoads-Heinrich said.

She said that as soon as the pounding rain stopped, neighbours in her area came together to start cleaning up.

"A lot of people have chainsaws in their vehicles and they started clearing up right away," she said. "This is a farming community and everyone helps each other in times like this."

Reegan Price, general manager of Seaforth Golf Club, said the storm took out about 50 trees there.

"It was intense. It was very high winds," he said. "You couldn’t see, things were blowing sidewalks. No one was scared, but it was intense."

As of 11 a.m. on Thursday, the club remained without power.

Price said staff were working to clean up the golf course.

"I don’t think we’ll be open before the weekend for sure. We’re working on generators now."

Sean Flynn is acting fire chief of Central Huron, the municipality that includes Goderich.

Flynn said there were no injuries linked to the storm in his area, however, extensive cleanup continued on Thursday.

“Crews are out in the area restoring hydro. Crews are still out doing major cleanup. If people are out, they need to be conscious of the crews that are working.”

Dawn Snell is a co-owner of Stratford Junk Removal. A single fallen tree damaged two of the company’s flat-bed dump trucks as they sat in storage near Dublin.

“They got hit pretty good,” she said. “One of the large trees fell on them both, crushing them, and they’re both writeoffs. On our way there, there were trees all over the road.”

Thousands of people remain without power Thursday morning as crews worked to restore power. Hydro One said some of the largest outages were reported in lakeside communities from Grand Bend to Goderich.

Hydro One spokesperson Bianca Pizzo said 50,000 people remained without power. The outages were caused by severe winds overnight "that caused downed tree limbs and branches onto power lines and in some cases have broken poles."

London Hydro reported no power outages as of Thursday.

Enova Power's map showed outages in Wellesley, Wilmot, Kitchener and Waterloo as of 11 a.m. Thursday. Enova Power services Kitchener, Waterloo, and the townships of Wellesley, Wilmot and Woolwich.

Waterloo regional police said they received 64 calls for service related to dangerous conditions caused by the storm. They included reports of downed trees and power lines, traffic signal outages and flooding.

Carmen Groleau is a reporter/editor with CBC Kitchener-Waterloo. She has been with the team for almost a decade wearing many different hats. She has a particular interest in covering municipal affairs and court.

With files from John Dalusong, Travis Dolynny, Andrew Lupton, Lauren Kuivenhoven