On Thursday, July 15, a severe thunderstorm warning was issued for Barrie and Innisfil, advising of torrential rainfall, very strong winds and hail. Around 2:45pm, InnPower lost a major supply feeder from Barrie causing an outage for approximately 2,130 customers. At 2:55pm, Environment Canada issued a Tornado warning for Barrie and Innisfil. It was later confirmed that an EF-2 Tornado with winds of 210km/h touched down in the south end of Barrie, with a damage zone 12 kilometers long and 600 meters wide. The tornado and surrounding storms hit our service area, resulting in damage to the infrastructure.

There were two major areas hit, both served by InnPower. First – Mapleview Drive between Yonge St and 25th SR and second – Sandy Cove acres. Many homes were damaged, countless trees broke/fell and a new 44/27.6 kV pole line (which serviced the Bistro 6 condo development) was taken down.

InnPower’s in house crews and K-Line contracted teams worked hard and well into the early morning to get power back as quickly and safely as possible. By 4:45pm, InnPower had sectionalized and restored power to over 1,100 customers, leaving around 1,030 customers without power. By 6:30pm, this number was down to around 200 customers out of power. By 2:30am, 130 customers at the Bistro 6 condos and the new high school remained without power. Power was restored to the 130 remaining customers later that evening.

“I am once again proud of our staff and their efforts. We are a small but powerful team that continues to make our communities proud.”

– Danny Persaud, President & CEO.