On Thursday, hundreds of homes, mostly located outside Stratford, were still without electricity after a strong storm hit late Wednesday afternoon.
Sep 03, 2026 • Last updated 2 days ago •
A shelf cloud loomed over Stratford during the late afternoon on Wednesday. The storm that followed caused damage to trees and hydro poles and left thousands without power at one point. Photo by Mark Benest/Special to the Beaco
Many homes, primarily outside of Stratford, were still experiencing power outages on Thursday following a fierce storm that struck Wednesday afternoon, causing significant tree damage and prompting tornado investigators to head to West Perth.
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Northern Tornadoes Project director Dave Sills mentioned that a survey team was going to Brodhagen on Thursday morning to check “where the worst damage appears to have occurred.”
Severe weather warnings were issued for the area on Wednesday, but it wasn’t until around 5 p. m. that a line of intense storms moved across Lake Huron and quickly reached Perth County. Environment Canada issued a tornado warning for the region as a tornado-warned cell near Dublin moved east at speeds of up to 75 kilometers per hour.
The communities faced damaging winds, heavy rain, and hail the size of marbles.
A powerful storm late Wednesday afternoon uprooted trees and took down branches across Stratford. (Cory Smith/Beacon Herald) Photo by Cory Smith /jpeg, SF, apsmc
“At this point, we have no credible evidence that a tornado occurred with the storms over southern Ontario (on Wednesday), but we continue to receive reports and analyze them,” Sills said in an email. “The team will have a lot of area to cover in the next couple of days with damage reported from south of Goderich to Brantford.”
Thousands of residents within Festival Hydro’s service area lost power around 5:30 p. m. on Wednesday evening; many experienced outages lasting several hours. By Thursday morning, there were still 79 customers in Stratford without power due to two outages while nearly 1,200 customers in Hensall, Zurich, and Dashwood remained disconnected.
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“(Wednesday’s) severe thunderstorms caused significant damage including broken poles downed power lines and damaged electrical equipment,” said the utility company on Thursday. “While Festival Hydro has restored power for many affected customers some remaining outages are due to damage within Hydro One’s distribution system which supplies parts of our service area.”
Hydro One estimated restoration would be complete by 11 p. m. on Thursday.
A powerful storm late Wednesday afternoon uprooted trees and took down branches across Stratford. (Cory Smith/Beacon Herald) Photo by Cory Smith /jpeg, SF, apsmc
A number of roads throughout Perth South remained closed on Thursday due to fallen trees and hydro wires blocking rural highways. The Stratford Police Service charged a driver who crashed into a tree after ignoring road closure signs on Perth Road 113 between Line 20 and Line 26 at about 6:30 a. m.
No injuries were reported from this incident although airbags deployed in the vehicle which suffered windshield damage.
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“We ask everyone to be patient while crews continue working hard clearing all roadways in our area so safe travel can resume,” stated Stratford police Constable Darren Fischer in a release.
A section of trees inside Avondale Cemetery suffered extensive harm when storms hit Stratford on Wednesday afternoon.(Cory Smith/Beacon Herald) Photo by Cory Smith /jpeg , SF , ap smc
Meanwhile public works crews are actively managing cleanup efforts throughout the region.
“City crews are continuing their work this morning after an intense yet brief storm passed through,” posted City of Stratford via Facebook. “Strong winds brought down trees along with branches across various neighborhoods.”
Residents noticing city tree damages-trees located between roadways & property lines-are encouraged reporting them via forms. stratford. ca/report-an-issue Damaged trees situated privately should be addressed through professional services.
Smaller branches may be taken directly into landfill compost piles or bundled (for those less than four inches thick) picked up during curbside yard waste collection set for Sept.21 -25.
cosmith P>Trees damaged at Avondale Cemetery wait processing through woodchippers following rains occurring last week.(Cory Smith / Beacon Herald )Photo by Cory Smith/jpeg, SF , ap smc
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