Winds from the devastating storm that hit Ottawa and the region on Saturday reached 190 miles per hour in some areas, researchers say, but a tornado did not land.
“Data analysis reveals that a particularly sharp drop, not a tornado, was responsible for the damage” in southern Ottawa, Western University’s Northern Tornadoes Project said Wednesday morning.
Maximum wind speeds reached 190 kilometers per hour, the researchers said. They measured the storm, known as “right”, as EF-2. The EF scale measures the intensity of wind damage on a scale of 0 to 5.
Overnight, Hydro Ottawa teams reconnected 10,000 more customers to the power grid, officials said Wednesday morning. Electricity has been restored for about 121,000 customers.
“Some of those bigger pole lines you see at Woodroffe in Merivale are hitting them hard today,” Joseph Muglia, Hydro Ottawa’s chief operating officer, told CTV Morning Live. “Once we can get those lines back, we’ll see a lot of customers at once.”
Muglia said on Wednesday that additional hydraulic crews would arrive from Toronto to help.
“We’re still aiming for the end of this week to have most customers online and come back with energy,” he said. “That’s still the trajectory and that’s what we’re trying to do.”
Hydro One reported that more than 29,000 customers in eastern Ontario still had no electricity on Wednesday morning, compared to 49,000 on Tuesday afternoon. Hydro Quebec said there were still 15,500 customers in the Outaouais region to connect, below 21,000 on Tuesday.
An NTP storm study team investigated the damage in southern Ottawa after the May 21 law. Analysis of the data reveals that a particularly intense descent, not a tornado, was responsible for the damage there, with maximum wind speeds reaching 190 km / h (EF2). #ONStorm 1/2 pic.twitter.com/qCfR4XaPn5
– Northern Tornadoes Project 🇨🇦 (@westernuNTP) May 25, 2022
Some 40 roads are still impassable due to fallen trees and water lines, Public Works Director General Alain Gonthier told reporters Tuesday afternoon. Neighbors are still being asked to stay off the roads if they can.
Some of the city’s respite centers are reopening Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. for people in need of electricity, water, food and housing. You can see a full list here. There are also landfills installed in various places for spoiled food, and the city is conducting a blitz of green bins to collect food waste.
Many city services were closed on Tuesday, but reopened on Wednesday.
Ottawa’s English public and Catholic schools that have power reopen on Wednesday. There are more than 60 schools in the city that do not yet have electricity and will remain closed.
Two schools were damaged by the storm and will remain closed for an extended period of time. French councils plan to open schools that have power.
At least 10 people in Ontario and Quebec were killed in the storm, including three in the Ottawa area.