The leaves and blooms that come with the long weekend of Victoria Day are always a welcome harbinger of summer time, but lush greenery may also have contributed to the devastating damage suffered in eastern Ontario during Storm Derejo.
Many trees were completely uprooted during Saturday’s Ottawa Deer Storm, while others were felled and heavy branches were broken across the region.
Alain Gontier, general manager of the city’s public works department, said there were two main factors behind such widespread damage to the city’s large trees.
“These are extremely strong winds that we have had and most of the affected areas are mostly more than mature communities where we have a bigger canopy, bigger trees,” he said.
“When you have these strong winds, it’s a lot of pressure.”
Speaking at a news conference on Tuesday, Gontier said areas with younger, shorter trees are doing better overall against winds of up to 190km / h at the southern end of the city.
Older mature trees have just grown leaves and have been damp due to the time of year, which means they have become heavy, he said.
“If this storm hit a month or a month and a half ago, when we had fewer leaves on the trees, the impact could have been less,” he said. “But a lot of the trees have really started to get their greenery. This is putting a lot more pressure.”
It will take weeks to clean up
Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson said it would probably take weeks to gather the wood and fallen debris that is now dumping the yards, urging people to be patient. He suggested that residents drag fallen materials to the curb, where crews can pick them up.
At least 10 people were killed in Saturday’s storm, most of them by falling trees.
Fred Stevens of Manotick Tree Movers echoed previous statements from the mayor and Hydro Ottawa, saying Saturday’s storm was different from earlier powerful weather events such as the 2018 tornado in Ottawa and the 1998 ice storm.
“We did an awful lot of pruning [but] the trees generally remained intact, “he said.” The worst were taken down, but when you have something like that. It is [a] failure of the whole tree. “
He said that “the early leaves are the ones that were really knocked down this time.” The melon trees did better, he said.
Many trees were severely damaged or destroyed by the storm this weekend. At least 10 people were killed in Saturday’s storm, most of them by falling trees. (Hali Kotnam / CBC)
Trees eradicate more easily when the ground is softer, says an arborist
Ian Laidlow, who works for the Davey Tree Expert Company in Ottawa, says Saturday time is different because of its impact in so many areas of the city.
“From one end of the city to the other. And just huge stretches of trees everywhere,” said Leidlow, who added that trees will be easier to uproot when the ground is softer in the spring.
WATCH Video with a drone shows damaged hydrocools, downed trees after a storm in Ottawa:
A video of a drone shows damaged hydrofoils, downed trees after a storm in Ottawa
About 27,000 Hydro One customers were still without electricity on Tuesday after a strong thunderstorm damaged hydropower on Saturday afternoon.
Leidlow said the time of year has affected the amount of damage, but he believes many trees would fall regardless of the season.
“The reason trees are hitting so hard in cities is because they grow too wide,” he said. “It’s like imagining trees in the bush, they’re just skinny little things with a little life on top.
“In a city without proper maintenance, they just grow wild and out of control,” Leidlow said.
He recommends proper maintenance and pruning to minimize risk, but admits that when winds reach certain speeds, so much can be done.
Ottawa 6:35 a.m. Long days for arborists after last weekend’s storm.
We hear what damage a carpenter sees when visiting homes affected by a storm last weekend.
Laidlaw advises homeowners not to completely remove trees for fear of major wind storms, but to seek expert advice before removing trees because they add value to property.
Owen Clarkin, vice president of the Ottawa Naturalists’ Club, agrees with Leidlow that wind speeds would knock down a tree of any weight, regardless of the time of year.
“Trees can fall,” he said. “It’s just the nature of the trees, isn’t it? They’re big and heavy.”
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