A powerful thunderstorm swept across Toronto, Canada’s largest city, on Wednesday, damaging buildings, forcing road closures and leaving tens of thousands of residents without electricity.
The storm unleashed torrential rain, strong winds and large hail, prompting tornado watches and warnings in several areas, reports Al Jazeera.
Toronto Hydro said at least 45,000 customers remained without electricity as of 8pm on Wednesday (00:00 GMT on Thursday).
Strong winds brought down trees and the heavy rainfall caused flooding, leading to road closures across the city, including on the Don Valley Parkway, CBC reported.
The Michael Garron Hospital in Toronto’s East York community said flooding had affected its emergency department.
Images published by CBC showed cars almost submerged by floodwaters in Vaughan, north of Toronto.
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow said in a post on X that the city had activated its emergency operations centre on Wednesday morning.
“City crews are already out responding to downed power wires, fallen trees, flooding and more,” she said. The Toronto Transit Commission, which operates subways and buses, “is working to restore service where it has been affected by flooding and debris spread by high winds”, she added.
Meanwhile, dozens of flights scheduled to depart Toronto Pearson International Airport on Wednesday evening were delayed or cancelled.
Environment and Climate Change Canada later lifted its orange warning for severe thunderstorms in the Greater Toronto Area.
However, a yellow alert for heat and severe thunderstorms remained in force across parts of southwestern Ontario.
