Severe windstorm in Kingston and area
A severe windstorm passed through the Kingston area on the afternoon of Sunday, Nov. 15, 2020, and continued through the evening with winds gusting up to 82km/hr.
The effects of the storm began at around 3:30PM, when power went out for just over 150 households in the area of Wise St and Aylmer Cres, in Kingston’s west end, according to Hydro One.
An additional 258 households in Sandhurst Shores, along Highway 33 in Loyalist Township, were also without power at that time. This power outage caused by a tree on a power line, according to Hydro One.
Multiple power outages were also being reported on Wolfe Island, with nearly 500 residents there without power.
On Amherst Island, about 100 residents lost power.
The roadway at Union St and College St was blocked on Sunday afternoon at around 2:30PM due to a fallen tree. Kingston Police attended to divert traffic while Utilities Kingston crews cleared away the debris.
Fire crews were also dispatched to a report of wires arcing in the 4900 block of Battersea Rd at around 3:00PM.
Approximately 300 households were without power in the Battersea area throughout the early afternoon and into the evening.
In the parking lot of the Gardiners Centre, twitter user @bgaudz captured a photo of a collapsed lamp post. Fortunately, no vehicles were in the path of the falling post and there were no reported injuries.
The strong winds tore a traffic light down at Johnson St and Ontario St.
Along the shores of Lake Ontario, waves ranged from 2-3 metres high.
At around 4:30PM in Hay Bay, Mohawk Fire, the Canadian Coast Guard, and the Greater Napanee Fire Department responded to a report of three occupants in distress about an aluminum boat. All made it safely to shore.
At around 5:45PM and with the storm surging, over 5000 households between Shannonville and Greater Napanee lost power. Hydro One initially estimated a time for restoration of power of 8:00PM for most of those outages.
By 7:00PM, though, that number had risen to about 6000 households between Shannonville and Kingston, with about 4500 of those in Greater Napanee.
Utilities Kingston reported one brief outage in downtown Kingston to about 1200 customers, though it was repaired within 15 minutes.
Erin Tyers, a resident just outside of Roblin, north of Greater Napanee, reported that a large tree had fallen on her husband’s car, destroying it. There were no injuries.
The storm also caused flooding in several areas. Deep water pooled on Queen Mary Rd just south of Greenview, and on Hudson Dr. On the 401, water pooled in the westbound lanes near mile marker 618.
The heavy rain also caused Kingston’s sewer system to overflow and spill raw sewage into Lake Ontario at Gore St, according to Utilities Kingston. The volume of spillage was not immediately known.