Windsor crews cleaning up downed trees after last night's storm
City of Windsor crews have been removing downed trees across the city all day following Tuesday night's storm.
Environment Canada issued a warning overnight of heavy rain and wind gusts. Enwin reported power outages across the city overnight, many of which have since been resolved. About 62 people remain without power in South Windsor as of 7 p.m.
Thirty of the fallen trees are considered emergencies while another 30 are considered urgent matters, according to the city forester, Yemi Adeyeye.
Emergency tree situations are those that pose an immediate safety hazard, such as a tree blocking a roadway, according to Adeyeye. He says urgent matters are those that are somewhat less pressing, like a downed tree that's lying across a resident's lawn but not impeding their daily life.
Environment Canada said there was a risk of a thunderstorm Tuesday and into the evening. (Chris Ensing/CBC)
A tree outside of Walaa Alchikh's house came down in the storm. It fell on her tenants' car and is blocking them from leaving the house.
"It's crazy. This tree has been really causing trouble for a while. The neighbours said they've cut it but it's still … kinda dangerous," said Alchikh.
She says her insurance company is coming to investigate the tree and is still waiting to see what the cost of the damages are.
Tree damage claims rise in 2023
Damage claims to the city due to falling trees soared last year. There were 145 total tree-related claims made to the city in 2023 — a jump from the 84 reported in 2022.
That resulted in an increase in payouts to city residents, from $172,496 in 2022 to $225,617 in 2023.
According to the city's 2022 and 2023 Year End Risk Management Report, the increase is largely attributable to increased storm activity — in particular, the tornado that passed through Windsor last summer.
Hari Sridhar hopes the city takes more action to take down trees at risk of falling to prevent them from coming down in storms.
A tree in Sridhar's neighbourhood fell during a storm last year, damaging two houses. Despite making multiple calls to the city both before and after the tree fell, he says he and his neighbours didn't get a lot of "positive responses."
"The city can do more in terms of just taking proactive measures," said Sridhar. "I'm not a tree hater by any stretch. I love trees, but just in terms of the proximity to the houses they pose a great deal of risk. … These are old trees so they do need to be trimmed or taken away for sure unfortunately."
In the report, the city also cites Windsor's aging tree population as a factor contributing to the rising number of tree liability claims.
Adeyeye says 400 trees currently need to be taken down but 1,000 trees were removed by the city last year, so he thinks liability claims will go down this year.
He agrees that prevention is best, but says it's not always possible.
"Trees can be compared with humans in the sense that sometimes you can't really tell if someone is going to be sick tomorrow," said Adeyeye. "But when a weather event happens like the ones that happened last year, you can't really anticipate how many trees [are] going to fall or which direction [they're] going to fall in."
He adds that inspectors with the city have to prioritize which trees to trim or cut down first, which is why a problematic tree might not be dealt with as soon as a resident makes a call about it.
Highway 402 closure
A section of Highway 402 in Lambton County was closed for a few hours on Tuesday due to flooding.
Eastbound lanes at Nauvoo Road and Westbound lanes at Kerwood Road were shut down according to OPP West Region.
Police now say all lanes of Highway 402 in both directions have been reopened.
