A man was displaced from his home but ultimately uninjured after strong winds sent a tree crashing into house in Nanaimo, B.C. on Wednesday morning.
RCMP confirmed the senior was inside his living room when the tree came down on his bedroom. He was cleared medically by paramedics who attended the residence on Michigan Way.
Firefighters also attended the scene, said Const. Gary O’Brien, and power has since been cut off from the home.
Cathers Lake resident Garth Ross witnessed the crash. He said the wind in the neighbourhood had grown stronger in the morning — sounding like “waves crashing against rock” — when he decided to pick up his cell phone and film.
“It went from calm to crazy very quickly and that’s when I saw the two largest trees on Cathers Lake both go down at the same time and land on, what appears to be now, between the two houses,” he told Global News. “Catching it on camera was a fluke.”
Ross’s video shows two very tall trees crashing down across the lake from him. One struck the man’s house, the other fell to the side, Global News confirmed.
Trees were knocked down all over Nanaimo and Ladysmith on Wednesday as an unseasonable storm struck the region, causing blackouts.
Environment Canada posted wind warnings for much of Vancouver Island, the Sunshine Coast and the southern Gulf Islands.
The forecast called for very strong southwesterly winds of 70 kilometres per hour, gusting to 90 km/h, but easing by afternoon.
— With files from The Canadian Press