Windstorm hits city with outages and damage
A brief but intense windstorm hit the city Tuesday evening, causing power outages and other damage. A teenager was seriously injured in Ahuntsic when a tree fell on him. Some good photos of wind damage around town on CityNews.
Adding: Maisonneuve-Rosemont hospital was hit by an outage, which is having political fallout as it followed the government’s decision to delay renovations of the facility indefinitely.
dhomas 11:23 on 2025-04-30 Permalink
My neighbour’s heavy, metal gazebo flipped over into my yard last night. It’s very close to some power lines (and made of aluminum, so conductive) in its current state, so we didn’t dare touch it. It’s still there today. 🙁 I secured my gazebo ahead of time so it would be damaged or cause damage. Only a few compost bins were tossed around. I did notice some Tempos being shredded; I’m sure their owners are regretting dragging their feet removing them (the deadline in some boroughs, like HoMa, is April 30th). There were also lots of repair crews on my bike ride home today. They seem to prioritize leaving the car lanes free and park in the bike lanes, which kinda makes sense, though it was a bit of an inconvenience to me.
Kate 11:47 on 2025-04-30 Permalink
Going by reports on reddit alone, the winds were most intense on the eastern end of the island, Hochelaga being especially hard hit.
The storm touched Villeray but not for long. This morning, recycling day on my street, some trash and twigs had been blown around, but no worse.
…Has the metal gazebo been moved yet?
dhomas 16:49 on 2025-04-30 Permalink
Re the metal gazebo: the firefighters came yesterday to assess the risk of electrical fire. Hydro Quebec came this morning to move the gazebo away from the power lines. The gazebo itself was pretty much intact, just upside down resting on my kids’ swing set, the fence, and a neighbour’s shed. Then Hydro came. They didn’t even try to salvage the gazebo and destroyed it upon moving it, snapping a leg off to set it away from the power lines. My neighbour came into my yard and is currently removing the rest of the wreckage.
It was pretty scary yesterday because we were observing the windstorm and saw the gazebo seemingly coming directly toward us. Thankfully, there was a power cable that tethered it to the house and didn’t let it travel far.
Ian 22:04 on 2025-04-30 Permalink
I was caught outside when the microburst hit my neighbourhood, I ducked into a storefront doorway for shelter until it passed – it was pretty impressive watching the wind changing directions quickly and the intense sheets of rain changing with it… I was pretty surprised no trees or large branches came down but that was just the north end of Mile End. South of St Joe they were still having a power outage this morning.
Glad to hear everything was ok dhomas, that must have been pretty freaky.
Kate 11:51 on 2025-05-01 Permalink
As the climate changes, we’ll have to accept that heavy objects that aren’t fixed down can become dangerous projectiles in windstorms like Tuesday evening’s. We’re not as accustomed to this as some (except for dhomas, who had his gazebo pinned down!).