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Violent Thunderstorm Slams Greater Toronto with Torrential Rains, Submerging Highways, Disrupting Transit, and Leaving 65,000 Without Power
Municipal emergency operations centres mobilize across Ontario as flash floods overwhelm drainage networks along the Don Valley Parkway and ground regional flights.
Severe storm batters Toronto with flash floods and high winds, knocking out power to 65,000 customers and submerging the Don Valley Parkway.
TORONTO - A severe and destructive thunderstorm battered Canada’s financial capital and the surrounding Greater Toronto Area on Wednesday evening, unleashing torrential downpours, hurricane-force wind gusts, and large hail that rapidly overwhelmed municipal storm drainage systems, inundated major arterial highways, and severed electrical power to tens of thousands of homes and commercial establishments. According to emergency operational updates released by utility operator Toronto Hydro, the violent tempest knocked out power grids across several residential zones, leaving nearly 65,000 customers without electricity at the peak of the storm. Utility repair teams were deployed across the city in an urgent bid to clear live wires tangled in fallen tree branches, stabilize compromised electrical poles, and gradually restore service to affected neighborhoods. Officials warned that complete power restoration would take extended periods due to localized infrastructural damage scattered across multiple municipal wards. The sudden deluge transformed major commuter highways and low-lying transit corridors into hazardous waterways within minutes. Law enforcement and emergency transport…