It was a tough night for hydro crews in the Waterloo Region.
Teams from Grand Bridge Energy and Enova Power Corp. worked tirelessly overnight to restore power to tens of thousands of customers after Wednesday’s fierce storm.
The storm set off red-level alerts across southern Ontario for tornadoes, severe thunderstorms, and damaging winds.
Waterloo regional police informed City News Kitchener that officers responded to 64 reports involving downed trees, power lines, and traffic light failures.
A damage assessment team is looking into whether one or possibly two tornadoes touched down between Bayfield and Cambridge.
By around 8:00 p. m. on Wednesday, Grand Bridge Energy reported that approximately 12,000 customers were without power.
Some residents in Ayr and North Dumfries still had no electricity as of Thursday morning. Grand Bridge officials indicated that issues were resolved by 6:00 a. m., urging anyone still facing problems to reach out at customercare@grandbridgeenergy. com.
In Kitchener, Waterloo, and throughout the townships, Enova Power dispatched crews mainly to the west-end where over 17,000 customers lost power around 9:00 p. m. At the height of the storm, more than 19,000 customers were affected.
As of 6:00 a. m. Thursday, fewer than 100 customers remained without service.
We appreciate your patience while crews work to restore service to 17,000+ customers affected by outages due to high winds during this evening’s storm. Many trees and lines are down throughout our area. Stay safe: Keep 10 meters back from downed power lines as they could be live. pic. twitter. com/09tn Ldy ORf
– Enova Power Corp. (@enovapower) September 2, 2026
Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic commended the rapid response from crews on social media.
“We went from 18 outage areas and over 19k customers out at peak in the coverage area at 6pm, with over half restored by 10pm to less than 1000 customers to address asap this (Thursday) morning,” said Vrbanovic.
“Thank you to all customers for their patience following yesterday’s hard-hitting weather event!”
Kitchener forestry teams were also busy after the storm with more than 60 calls about fallen trees and debris throughout the city.
“Crews are working late this evening (Wednesday) to address issues, prioritizing clearing roadways, then driveways, then sidewalks, and will return to non-urgent areas in the morning. There may be an impact to residents’ morning commute,” said city officials.
In Waterloo, city authorities mentioned that debris cleanup could take several days.
The morning commute faced a yellow-level fog advisory once again which added potential hazards on the roads.
Alectra Utilities confirmed there were no remaining outages in Guelph as of Thursday morning.
The intense storm caused widespread power outages in the Greater Toronto Area with thousands of Toronto Hydro customers still without power Thursday morning.
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