A storm that moved through the Sarnia area early Thursday knocked down power lines, leaving 8,000 Bluewater Power customers without electricity at one point, says the head of the utility.
Environment Canada issued a severe thunderstorm watch and rainfall warning for the region ahead of the storm.
“It all started about 2:45 am as the storm came through,” said Bluewater Power chief executive Janice McMichael-Dennis.
“The rains were very, very heavy,” she said.
It’s likely a combination of heavy rain and wind caused trees and limbs to come down and knock out electricity service in some parts of the Sarnia area, she said.
Early on in the storm, part of a tree fell on feeder lines in the Point Edward area and a tree later came down in another area of the city, McMichael-Dennis said.
Sarnia police warned residents early in the morning that a downed tree was blocking a section of Wellington Street, near Siddall Street.
Bluewater Power crews were still there later in the morning, repairing lines.
Power was returned to customers through the morning and by 8 am “all but a small handful” had their electricity, McMichael-Dennis said. Some had their power interrupted for an hour or more; others, for up to about five hours, she said.
In one instance, “we had live lines on the ground” and “that’s always a dangerous situation” causing “some extra complexity” to make repairs, McMichael-Dennis said.
“It was a crazy night but, once again, when the going gets tough these tough people get going,” she said.
Bluewater Power has a crew of about 20 line personnel, as well as control room staff and supervisors who respond during storms, she said.
McMichael-Dennis said having 8,000 customers without power “is a lot given we have 36,000. It certainly kept everybody hopping but our crews responded immediately.”
It was the largest storm incident the utility has dealt with so far this year, she said.
“For a very significant storm like this, to have your longest outage five hours, shows really great response on behalf of the utility,” McMichael-Dennis said.