Blizzard winds rip roof tiles off Halifax apartment building

WATCH ABOVE: Wind gusts of up to 100 kilometres an hour ripped off roofing tiles from an apartment building in Halifax. Global’s Julia Wong reports from the scene.

HALIFAX – Some people in Halifax spent Thursday morning picking up more than snow after Wednesday’s blizzard damaged the roof of an apartment building.

Police say high winds ripped several tiles off the Main Avenue structure’s roof around 3:30 a.m.

Gina Stoddart described the incident as sounding like a snow plow driving around on top of the building.

“It was quite scary. It woke me up. It was a really loud bang,” she said.

Another resident said it was “so scary” she couldn’t sleep all night.

Roof tiles, some several feet wide, littered the ground outside the building and along Main Avenue.

Others landed in the treetops next to the building.

READ MORE: Maritimers clean up after powerful spring blizzard

Property Manager Harold Marryatt said about 50 people live in the building. He adds the building does have insurance.

He describes the damage as extensive and estimates it will cost between $150,000 to $250,000 to repair.

Adjusters and restoration crews were on site Thursday morning to pick up the debris and survey the damage.

Marryatt said he did not anticipate the blizzard winds would cause so much destruction.

“I didn’t expect the winds to be that high. I thought things were dying down through the night so no, I didn’t expect this to happen.”

He also notes that he does not think anything more could have been down to prevent the tiles from flying off.

No residents have been asked to leave their apartments and no damage has been reported inside the building.

Police taped off an outside area around the building’s entrance for safety reasons.

The building is approximately 35 years old.

On Wednesday night, howling winds pulled down power lines across the Maritimes, leaving about 16,000 Nova Scotians in the dark at one point.

*with files from The Canadian Press