THUNDER BAY – A violent windstorm swept through sections of the south side of Thunder Bay on Tuesday evening, leaving a swath of carnage in its wake.
Dozens of trees, large and small, were toppled, damaging vehicles and homes in the Westfort and Parkdale areas, as well as other neighbourhoods in the vicinity.
Roofs and fences suffered damage after the storm, which lasted a few short minutes, finished its path of destruction.
Sue Smith, who lives in a Mary Street condo, said a large tree that fell across her street narrowly missed taking out her second-floor balcony, not to mention a neighbour’s truck parked next door. Another motorist wasn’t as fortunate, his windshield smashed when the tree toppled.
He was able to back up and drive away, the two people in the vehicle unscathed.
The vehicle, not so much.
Smith said it was a frightening couple of minutes.
There was no warning, she added.
“It was getting a little bit dark, and it started to rain a little bit, but real fast. It came like a tornado and when I tried to look out (my) window, all I could see was swirling white. Hail was hitting the window so hard I thought my front window was going to come in. So I went to the back of the house to look out,” Smith said.
Forestry workers were quick to arrive on scene and immediately began the task of carving the tree down, feeding branches into an industrial size chipper that made easy work of the downed tree’s limbs.
A tree also made a section of Centre Avenue all but impassable, though some vehicles took on the challenge and slowly made their way through the carnage.
A homeowner on Walsh Street lost a large tree on their front yard, with dozens of people stopping to take pictures of the uprooted tree.
Damage to houses was posted to social media channels.
It’s unclear what brought on the storm.
Smith said there was no warning.
