City of Windsor forestry crews were kept very busy on Thursday with calls related to tree damage from Wednesday night’s ice storm.
IN PICTURES: Ice storm hits Windsor-Essex
In addition to 230 emergency calls fielded by Windsor Fire, the 311 Customer Contact Centre has received over 600 service requests via calls, 311 Online and the 311 Mobile App.
Windsor resident Dylan Marcotte couldn’t believe what he saw in his backyard this morning.
“Mind blowing. Really. Just look at it,” Marcotte said pointing to an uprooted tree that landed on his neighbour’s Church Street home.
“I'm happy nobody really got hurt and that's the main thing. I've never seen anything like this. It's wild.”
Part of the tree spilled over the house, landed on the garage and grazed another neighbour’s home. A big branch also broke off and smashed into a car in the driveway.
Lauren Lacroix also dealt with a large branch landing on her roof. The branch didn’t look like much of a threat from the street but it fell onto the roof like a sword.
“The branches through it into my closet,” said Lacroix, who thought the impact sounded like thunder.
No one was hurt but she says the hole was six feet away from her infant’s room. The closet is at the front of the house where she was when the branch hit.
“It's like right there and I was in the dining room so I was very close to it and it scared....the daylights out of me,” she said.
Don Cyr had a close call of his own this morning while clearing debris from his Ouellette Street home.
“I was trying to clear the driveway so we could get a car out and another branch came down,” he said. “You can see it over there. It scared the daylights out of me.”
There was no shortage of cracking sounds and falling debris Wednesday night and into Thursday.
“And I heard it again and again and again and it was eerie and a little bit scary, creepy but ironically also somewhat beautiful with the ice hanging from the branches,” said Jay Stosberg, whose front lawn was littered with debris.
Many people reported hearing and seeing transformers blowing up overnight.
Cyr said he heard a bang.
“I looked out the window and I've seen Northern Lights and that's exactly what it looked like,” he said. “They were green and yellow and just beautiful and then everything went out.”
City officials say the significant call volume could mean increased wait time for callers, so residents are encouraged to use the other options:
“Forestry is prioritizing calls by tackling any broken limbs or downed trees posing danger or affecting right-of-ways, and once those initial calls are dealt with, the longer process of getting to non-emergency calls will take place,” said a city news release.
Windsor Fire and Rescue Services and Enwin Utility crews also responded to numerous calls for downed power lines overnight and reminds residents to avoid downed power lines and be vigilant when walking; avoid walking under overhead tree limbs if possible.
Natural areas where tree coverage is substantial should be avoided until temperatures warm up and the ice coverage is melted.
Enwin was flooded with calls from customers with no power.
“Last night we hit a peak of 25,000 customers out of service and our crews are obviously battling that but we were able by the morning commute we got it down to two-thousand customers out of service,” said Enwin CEO Gary Rossi.
That number fluctuated during the day as limbs continued to fall.
Enwin is hoping to have everybody back online by tomorrow. Rossi warns residents to stay away from any downed powerlines and to report it to Enwin.
In Essex County, downed branches can be dropped off at one of the Essex Windsor Solid Waste Authority drop off depots.
