THUNDER BAY — Hydro One crews continue to do repairs in the wake of the severe storms that passed through Northwestern Ontario on Tuesday.
As of 9:00 a.m. Wednesday, the utility reported 22 separate outages in the Thunder Bay area and one in the Atikokan area.
It said over 1,100 customers were affected.
By mid-afternoon, about half of these had their power restored, but Hydro One estimated it wouldn't complete all the required repairs until approximately 8:00 p.m.
Numerous trees were downed in rural areas outside Thunder Bay including Oliver Paipoonge, where a crew was deployed to remove at least 20 trees from roadways.
Pete Huitsing, who lives on John Street Road, said he was in his house watching the storm roll in Tuesday evening "because I love thunderstorms, and all of a sudden the wind turned more violent than I've ever seen in my lifetime."
He found himself running between the front window to a back window "watching trees come down in force like they didn't know which way to go at first."
Huitsing estimates that he lost 35 to 40 trees in total.
"I've got a bit of a mess to clean up, but no one was hurt, and the house is okay," he said.
Environment Canada issued several tornado watches and warnings west of Thunder Bay on Tuesday.
A spokesperson for the Northern Tornadoes Project at Western University in London, Ont. said its research team has seen social media reports of two tornadoes at Whitefish Lake, but the posters provided no evidence.
He said the NTP team may have to wait up to a week to get access to clear satellite imagery that allows it to look for tornado-caused damage in forested areas.
The group works with Environment Canada to confirm tornado occurrences across the country.
The storm system also brought lots of rain, including 106 mm measured by a Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry monitoring station at Quetico Provincial Park.
Environment Canada said rainfall totals in the region generally varied between 40 and 80 mm.
At Thunder Bay Airport, just under 44 mm fell.
NOTE: A previous version of this story has been updated to include information provided by John Street Road resident Pete Huitsing.
With files from Jonathan Wilson/TBT News.
