Storm cleanup continues in Waterloo region
Power has now been fully restored in Waterloo region after a long weekend storm that was anything but normal.
The last hydro hookups were completed Tuesday afternoon, but the cleanup will continue for a few more days.
At the peak of the damage, Kitchener Wilmot Hydro says one-fifth of its customers lost power, that’s roughly 21,000 homes. As of Tuesday morning, about 50 customers just west of Victoria Park were still in the dark.
The power outage also forced Kitchener’s largest secondary school, St. Mary’s High School, to close Tuesday.
WORKING AROUND THE CLOCK
Arborists and roofers have also been busy.
“We’ve been working like crazy and the problem is you just don’t know when to stop. We’ve been working till 10, 11 o’clock at night,” said arborist Joe Legat. “I haven’t seen my family in three days and I’m sleeping in the same house as them.”
Legate said he received over 100 calls in the last two days and is triaging the calls according to damage.
He advises homeowners take a look around their properties and be extra careful as cleanup continues.
One local roofing company said they've also received over 100 calls and that some of the damage they’ve seen caught them by surprise.
“Our reaction is like ‘wow,’” said Sam Qadami with Brother’s Roofing, referencing a building behind him. “As soon as we got here me and my brother were like ‘oh my goodness, this is mad, this is crazy.’
"We have a couple crews out, emergency crews, and then we had to come out and do some repairs because we're just getting too many calls."
The City of Cambridge had to call in workers during the long weekend to deal with the aftermath of the storm.
“It was a little tougher to get some people out than usual,” said Mike Hausser, director of operations for the City of Cambridge. “But we had a really strong core team that came out with 12 staff responding yesterday so that was terrific.”
WHAT DO I DO NOW?
Some roofing companies estimate it could take weeks to get through all the repairs, with costs ranging from a few hundreds of dollars up to thousands.
The Insurance Bureau of Canada tells CTV News Kitchener there's no need for homeowners to panic.
"Wind is typically covered under home insurance, tenant insurance, and condo insurance policies," said Anne Marie Thomas of the bureau.
Thomas reminds residents to keep repair receipts, as insurance companies usually reimburse people for damage caused by extreme wind, flying debris, or fallen trees.
"They may have preferred companies that they deal with and can connect you with them," said Thomas. "Others may say find an arborist, find us a roofer and send us the bill."
STAYING OPTIMISTIC
Meanwhile one Kitchener resident who lost power for three days and had several large branches land on his shed and take out part of his chimney is staying optimistic.
“We spent the last three nights at the neighbours across the street who had power and kind of had to discover life before the Internet a bit, which is probably the upside of all this,” he said. “[It was] kind of fun to just sit around and talk to people instead of spending a night watching movies like we’ve been doing the whole pandemic.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
Toxic testing standoff: Family leaves house over air quality
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
Decoy bear used to catch man who illegally killed a grizzly, B.C. conservation officers say
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
B.C. seeks ban on public drug use, dialing back decriminalization
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
OPP responds to apparent video of officer supporting anti-Trudeau government protestors
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says it's investigating an interaction between a uniformed officer and anti-Trudeau government protestors after a video circulated on social media.
An emergency slide falls off a Delta Air Lines plane, forcing pilots to return to JFK in New York
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau on navigating post-political life, co-parenting and freedom
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
Last letters of pioneering climber who died on Everest reveal dark side of mountaineering
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
Loud boom in Hamilton caused by propane tank, police say
A loud explosion was heard across Hamilton on Friday after a propane tank was accidentally destroyed and detonated at a local scrap metal yard, police say.