Cleanup continues after storm soaks Toronto
Cleanup continues in Toronto after a thunderstorm swept through parts of the city on Wednesday afternoon, bringing high winds and heavy rain that caused roads and basements to flood.
The storm also left about 235 Toronto residents without power early Thursday, as crews worked to repair the outages.
Some 45,000 people lost power at the peak of outages during the storm. The deluge turned roads into creeks, snapped trees in half and initially left thousands without electricity for hours.
The remaining outages, which were repaired Thursday, were mostly related to downed power lines, Toronto Hydro said in a tweet.
Toronto was expected to get about 25 mm of rain in less than an hour, Environment Canada had said.
The agency urged people to avoid driving through water on roads and to watch out for potential washouts near rivers, creeks and culverts, as well as local street flooding.
A tornado watch also briefly issued for the city.
Flooding reported across west end of city
Toronto police reported that several areas in the west end experienced flooding.
Officers said neighbourhoods near Weston Road and Humber Boulevard were expected to flood after Black Creek overflowed its banks in several places.
Several cars were stalled in floodwaters near Oakdale Road and Sheppard Avenue as well as Jane Street and Chalkfarm Drive.
Major flooding was also reported to police on Lakeshore Drive near Ontario Drive.
Parts of Etobicoke were hit with a heavy downpour that swamped several streets and intersections.
Flooding was also reported under the bridge on Ossington Avenue between Dupont Street and Geary Avenue.
Video taken in the area showed vehicles getting stuck while other cars attempted to drive through the floodwaters.
Officials with the city's non-emergency contact line, 311, said they received nearly 1,500 calls between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m.
Although not all calls were related to the storm, many were about power outages, property damage due to city trees and branches falling, and flooded catch-basins and basements.
About 70 per cent of the calls came from the west end, they said, with the most coming from Wards 2, 3, 4 and 5.
