Storm damage in Cornwall and SD&G

A 60 foot (18 meter) maple tree toppled over in the high winds on Pacific Avenue in Cornwall, Ont. on Saturday, May 5, 2018. It was one of a handful of trees that succumbed to Mother Nature. (Newswatch Group/Bill Kingston)

CORNWALL – Downed trees, power lines and flying or overturned objects was just some of the damage created late Friday as the region was raked by an intense wind storm.

SD&G was under a wind warning for most of the day as a sharp cold front moved through the area. The wind warning ended around 1:20 a.m. Saturday.

Cornwall city crews had to cut up a downed tree on Elm Street at Cumberland Street, while firefighters were called to a massive tree down in the back yard of a home on Clark Avenue.

On the same street, a tent-type shelter had been overturned in somebody’s driveway by the wind, which reached gusts of nearly 90 kilometers an hour.

It wasn’t as intense as other areas of the province where Environment Canada says wind gusts up to 120 kilometers an hour were recorded.

“Because the ground has not been saturated with water and the trees have not budded out, there was less wind resistance on the trees and therefore less damage,” said Scott Porter, municipal parks supervisor with the City of Cornwall.

As of early Saturday morning, Porter said the extent of the damage in the city was two trees but they would reassess the situation at daybreak.

A 60 foot (18 meter) maple tree toppled over in the high winds on Pacific Avenue in Cornwall, Ont. on Saturday, May 5, 2018. It was one of a handful of trees that succumbed to Mother Nature. (Newswatch Group/Bill Kingston)
Pieces of a downed tree are stacked at the side of the road on Elm Street at Cumberland Street on Friday, May 5, 2018. It was one of a number of trees that came down in an intense wind storm. (Newswatch Group/Bill Kingston)

Porter also cautioned citizens to keep an eye out for garbage cans and other debris that has been blown about when travelling around the city.

Meanwhile, in the county, Hydro One crews were dealing with pockets of outages around Maxville, Morewood, St. Raphaels and north of Alexandria.

There were also reports of downed wires on Dafoe Road in South Stormont, north of Ingleside, where township firefighters and O.P.P. were on scene.

A sign is toppled over in extreme wind at the intersection of Ninth Street and Cumberland Street in Cornwall, Ont. on Saturday, May 5, 2018. It was one of a number of roadside signs that didn’t stand a chance against the wind which topped around 90 kilometers an hour. (Newswatch Group/Bill Kingston)

The Seaway International Bridge Corporation had to restrict certain types of traffic across both spans of the bridge to Cornwall Island for several hours, as a precautionary measure.

Elsewhere in Ontario, the storm is being blamed for two deaths.

One man was killed while clearing trees west of Toronto and a man in Hamilton died after he was electrocuted by downed wires in his driveway.

Pearson International Airport also had to stop in-bound and out-bound flights for a couple of hours because of the danger. The Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) also had to be shut down at the Burlington Skyway for a period.

A broken piece of soffit from a nearby home lays in the middle of Second Street West in Cornwall, Ont. on Saturday, May 5, 2018. The area was hit by an intense wind storm Friday night into Saturday morning causing mostly superficial damage. (Newswatch Group/Bill Kingston)