Winds gusting close to 110 km/h wreaked havoc throughout Saskatoon Wednesday.
Police closed off an intersection in the city’s downtown around 2 p.m. after gusts sent a window crashing down from the eighth floor of the Saskatoon Square office building. A semi-trailer was tossed on its side around 10 a.m. and the wind caused a camper trailer to flip over around noon.
A roof was ripped off a building in the city’s CN Industrial area, rafters were torn off a condo building that was under construction in the Stonebridge neighbourhood, knocked over garbage bins littered the streets and at least seven trees were knocked down due to the winds.
“Oh my God, it almost blew me away,” said Betty Slyppery, who was caught downtown Wednesday.
“It was pushing me backwards,” said Jerome Henry.
“Everything is getting destroyed,” added Shailee Brown from outside her home in the city’s Hampton Village neighbourhood.
Power outages were reported in several Saskatoon neighbourhoods throughout the morning and early afternoon. Lights were out in the city’s North Industrial, Sutherland, University Heights Industrial, Exhibition, Preston Crossing, Silverspring, Pleasant Hill, Queen Elizabeth and CN Industrial neighbourhoods.
Environment Canada issued a wind warning for much of the province Wednesday. Gusts reached more than 100 km/h in several Saskatchewan regions.
“We’ve got a really deep low pressure that’s moving through the northern portion of Saskatchewan, and because of that we’ve got a strong pressure gradient across southern Saskatchewan,” said John Paul Cragg, a meteorologist with Environment Canada. “That is bringing the winds and it’s going to be bringing the winds over the course of the day today.”
Winds were forecast to abate later in the day and fall below the warning threshold during the evening, but as of 5 p.m. gusts in the city were reaching 86 km/h. The winds calmed overnight, with Environment Canada reporting a a northeast wind of 20 km/h early Thursday.
