Burlington Airpark damaged by wind

(Updated)

A big clean up is underway tonight — a little more than 24 hours after powerful winds pounded much of our region.

In some areas wind gusts reached 100 kilometres an hour and there were still strong winds in the area today.

It seemed to hit in random pockets through Burlington and Hamilton. But we’ve had far more destructive storms. The ice storm last year took six months to clean up and the city responded to 20 thousand calls. This storm should be cleaned up by tonight. The city took around 150 calls. The worst I saw today was at the Burlington Airpark.

The winds picked up as the sun went down at the Burlington Airpark.

“It was like a big metal tornado, honestly.”

These workers had finished putting up snow fencing, and went to look for a hat that had blown away.

“As we were driving down the lane, I’m like, is that my hat? And he’s like wait, is that the hangars? Where’s the hangars?”

Tim Crawford, Burlington Airpark: “The front row of hangars were completely gone. Devastated. And the airplanes sitting there in a wind storm.”

A row of nine conjoined hangars were wrenched from the ground and thrown over the row of hangars behind. The debris litters the woods for hundreds of metres.

Crawford: “There’s a report that someone was inside a hangar at the time and the hangar lifted off around him. He was fine. There were no injuries.”

Geoff Backwell, Burlington Airpark: “Last night believe it or not there was one airplane tied down and all three wheels were off the ground. It was literally flying. Kinda’ cool to see.”

Two aircraft were damaged, but are thought to be repairable. John Bradshaw saw his propeller in CHCH News coverage: “But I couldn’t see the hangar. It had gone. (What were you thinking?) That’s it. It’s over. Structural damage to an airplane, you can’t fly the airplane.”

His plane is fine, and now tethered to the lawnmower.

Elsewhere, the wind turned over shopping cart shelters, blew pieces of construction onto streets, and uprooted trees. An Ancaster man found his pickup under his pine tree this morning. The family is just thankful the house wasn’t hit instead. Although Randy Allen says insurance will usually cover wind damage: “If a tree falls on your house, damage to your house is covered under home insurance. the cleanup of the tree, not covered. Your responsibility.”

Car insurance covers damage to cars. If shingles fly off the roof, it will be covered unless your roof hasn’t been maintained. If your fence blows down, they’ll only replace the portion that’s wrecked — the cost of fixing part of your fence may be less than your deductible.

We received about 30 calls last night related to traffic signals and continue to receive more today. Staff are responding on a priority basis with safety being first priority. This work is expected to continue over the next few days.

We encourage residents to report any roads, tree and traffic issues to 905- 546-city.