The giant storms, which swept across eastern Canada on Saturday, killed at least eight people, according to an official report revised upwards on Sunday. The Ontario Provincial Police announced to the CTVNews channel the death of seven people, killed on Saturday by falling trees and branches, once morest three counted the day before by the emergency services.
The eighth death was noted on Saturday on the Ottawa River, when a canoeist drowned off Gatineau, a Quebec suburb of Ottawa.
Violent winds, with peaks of more than 140 km / h, swept eastern Canada on Saturday from the center of the United States, summarized the national meteorology on Sunday, stressing that it was a phenomenon rare referred to as ‘derecho’.
“This storm was nearly 1000 km long, from Michigan to Maine”, American states located respectively in the center and northeast of the country, stretching through the Canadian provinces “of Ontario and Quebec”, a summary on local radio David Philipps, meteorologist at the Federal Ministry of the Environment. “It’s called a derecho: a long line of thunderstorms and micro-bursts,” the renowned scientist explained, noting that ‘derecho’ “is not a word we use frequently, it is an infrequent phenomenon.
Roads blocked, homes without electricity
The federal capital Ottawa was particularly hit, depriving up to 900,000 homes of power, while the streets were still cluttered with branches and various objects carried by the winds which in places took the form of a tornado.
“The last 24 hours have been very, very difficult,” Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson said at a press conference Sunday followingnoon, asking his fellow citizens “to remain optimistic despite the challenges” posed by the ravages of this summer storm. Local authorities said it would take several days to clear all obstructed streets and roads and return to normal.
Some 300,000 homes, especially in the Ottawa and Laurentians regions (north of Montreal), were still without power Sunday evening, according to online readings from local energy providers, Hydro One and Hydro-Quebec.