- My view from the front seat of my W/C bus.
April 28th, 2011 was a blustery day in the neighbourhood. Okay, it was downright scarey!!!!
At 7 a.m. I drove my little W/C bus northbound on Norfolk Street, Simcoe, from the intersection at DeCou Road towards the next intersection at Evergreen Hill. A hydro pole loomed over the street directly between Poplar and Cherry Streets on Norfolk Street, at a dangerous 45 degree angle. I noticed the hydro wires straining to keep it upright and that the pole was snapped off, like a twig!!! right at the base. I didn’t have time to wonder if it was safe to drive under it, I had no choice, the wind was whipping the bus to and fro, and I just had to run under it as quickly as possible.
At 7:15 a.m. I had made it onto Highway 3 at Renton and was proceeding eastward. A fellow bus-mate announced on the 2-way radio that a hydro pole had come down on Norfolk Street and asked the office to notify OPP and possibly Norfolk Power. Wow. In less than 15 minutes that pole had landed on the street. Along either side of the highway trees were down in the front yards of every house. EVERY HOUSE.
Over the next hour I listened as hundreds of fellow bus drivers were reported problems they were encountering such as downed trees blocking concession roads and dangerous conditions such as live hydro wires sparking across paved roadways and highways. When it got to the point that it seemed like every driver was requesting permission to reroute, our manager announced that due to the current weather conditions all rerouting as necessary would be automatically granted and that reporting late arrival at schools up to 15 minutes were not necessary either, in order to keep the 2-way radio clear for actual emergency situations that needed to be dealt with. That being said, drivers did continue to warn each other of impassable roads, and even aluminum shed debris blowing across fields and landing directly in the path on oncoming traffic.
OPP had to reroute traffic off Norfolk between DeCou and Evergreen Hill Roads. Traffic bound for West Lynn Public School on Parker was routed west up Evergreen Hill, then left or south down Elm Street to Parker Drive. Congested? Unbelievable! Exiting traffic was stopped, at a stand still, returning through the same neighbourhood because there are no traffic lights where Elm meets Evergreen. Traffic travelling up Evergreen has the throughway or right-of-way. They don’t have to let traffic out of Elm Street. Bus drivers requested via 2-way radio that OPP be contacted and asked if they could aid the situation by directing traffic, but our company’s plea must have gone unanswered. Norfolk was closed and rerouted to these streets until 5 p.m. that day.
CD98.9, local Simcoe radio station, announced “winds gusting up to 100 km per hour were reported” in the early morning hours and up to 11 a.m. In several intersections, individual traffic lights were swinging wildly from one or two wires, or missing entirely. At least two came down in the wind at DeCou and Norfolk (I watched one from the safety of Tim Horton’s).
www.hydroworld.com reported “Crews working 24-7 in wake of storm. Some area homes are still waiting for hydro service to be restored after Thursday’s wild winds.” The storm affected a large area of Southern Ontario, from London to St. Catharines. Port Rowan was completely without power until Saturday afternoon (Hydro One). Hydro One spokesperson Danielle Gauvin said Friday night that 6,700 of their customers in Simcoe were still without power, but it was expected to be restored by early Saturday.
The London Free Press, (When the Wind Blows, http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/2011/04/28/18076471.html) claimed that “with winds gusting at more than 100 km/hour, Norfolk County warned its residents Thursday morning to stay indoors.” So, I am just wondering, WHO was warning residents? I did not hear one word from anyone in any position of authority announce anything like that over the RADIO CD 98.9. No warning was made that I ever heard, and I was listening since 6:50 a.m. A ridiculous and vague claim.
CD 98.9 did announce later in the day that residents should stay out of public parks and wooded areas in the next few days because of the risk of falling tree limbs. Oakwood Cemetery had been closed due to damaged trees and is expected to reopen next week. Environment Canada was interviewed over the radio and offered an opinion or explanation as to why so many evergreen variety of trees were uprooted and over, compared to deciduous or regular leafed trees. 
Apparently, evergreen trees have a shorter root system that spreads out closer to the surface, making them less stable in the ground. In other trees, limbs detach and trunks tend to twist resulting in splits or sections coming down. This poses just as much danger as a tree coming down in it’s entirety.
Norfolk County was a mess for about a week afterward. There are entire streets in the “outlying areas” such as Turkey Point that STILL have downed wires, yes HYDRO WIRES, which the county and both of the power companies (Norfolk Power and Hydro One) have not prioritized. Yes, it’s still “cities first” policy, which ultimately lead to the demise of thousands of dairy cattle in the ill-fated Ice-Storm ’98 incident, and several isolated human deaths due to lack of necessities such as heat, water and food. Today’s date is May 18, 2011, and hydro still has not been restored to Whispering Pines in Turkey Point, despite repeated calls to the power companies and subsidiary electrical repair companies.
