WATCH: Brian Bentz, President and CEO of Powerstream, discusses the timeline for repairs to be completed and the intersection to re-open
TORONTO – A portion of Warden Avenue could be closed until late Thursday evening after a high winds and thunderstorms rolled through the area on Tuesday.
“Last night we had, as you’re aware, a significant storm blowing through the area with extremely high winds,” Brian Bentz, the president of Powerstream said. “We have 12 poles that have sheared to varying degrees and that shearing took out 13,000 customers in the Markham area.”
The majority of those customers had their power restored by 2 a.m. Wednesday morning but Bentz said a handful of residents along Warden Avenue could be without power through much of the day.
Police and fire crews have barricaded Warden Avenue between 14th Avenue and Steeles Avenue due to the downed hydro poles.
Approximately 25 cars were damaged and trapped by the downed wires, Bentz said.
Bentz explained the first pole to fall dragged down the rest.
“It is a bit of a domino effect, the stress of one pole coming down creates tension obviously on the other and in this case we had 12 come down.”
The winds that knocked down the dozen poles was part of a large storm that ripped through much of southern Ontario and led to a tornado touching down in Angus, damaging hundreds of homes.
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