Trees and branches litter streets, yards
Jun 29, 2009 - 02:04 PM
By Kristen Calis
PICKERING -- Ursula Wolfel was relieved that her family was safely indoors and not standing on her front lawn Thursday at lunch time during a fast and powerful storm.
"Yesterday, I got nothing done. All the neighbours were stopping by," the Pickering resident said from her porch Friday, assessing the damage.
The half-hour storm that came through Durham Region was so strong in Pickering that 42 phone calls came into the City requesting assistance with fallen trees, branches and road flooding, said the City's parks supervisor John Coyle.
"It seems to be concentrated more from about Finch Avenue down," he said.
A thick branch was torn from the roughly 70-year-old tree that sits on Ms. Wolfel's property and crashed onto her porch, damaging it to the point where it will probably have to be replaced.
"There's a lot of fallen trees but they've all fallen toward the street," Ms. Wolfel said.
Mr. Coyle said staff began clearing the damage immediately after the storm, and continued doing so Monday when they had to remove some leftover branches and leaves that accumulated on the side of some roads.
"It took us a couple of days to get everything cleared up," he said, but added everything is pretty much cleared up now.
Although he said a staff member had to pull over because the hail was so heavy, it wasn't as bad as a storm that damaged hundreds of cars last year.
"We checked our vehicles and didn't see any hail damage," he said.
In fact, Ms. Wolfel's car was one of those riddled with hail in 2008, so this time she was prepared.
"Thank God I put my car in the garage," she said.
When Ward 2 Regional Councillor Bill McLean, who assessed the damage in his ward, warned Ms. Wolfel that the tree would most likely have to be taken down for safety reasons, she wasn't surprised, but a little disappointed.
"I don't have air," she said. "That was my beautiful air conditioner."
Mr. Coyle confirmed the tree has now been taken down.
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