Area farmers are cleaning up after last night’s severe thunderstorm.
Councillor Leon Leclair says the Mitchell’s Bay and Grande Pointe area saw significant tree, property, and crop damage.
“It knocked a lot of trees down, a lot of crops [are damaged]. I don’t know how many crops are affected. Some crops are totally wiped out. The hail was large, and there was a lot of wind damage from the storm”, explains Leclair.
Leclair farms about 700 acres in the area, and he says although the extent of the damage has yet to be determined, he knows the loss is significant.
“There will be millions of dollars of crop damage. Some will bounce back, some weren’t hurt as bad, some fields are a total write-off. It’s very concerning – I haven’t got everything figured out yet to see how much damage I have”, says Leclair.
He says farmers in the area have already started to do what they can to save their crops.
“Some of us have hired helicopters to get some fungicide protection on our crops to try to save them or whatever is left, so that’s the process we’re going through right now”, he says.
The storm uprooted trees and knocked down branches. Leclair says if you’re cleaning up after the storm, the Dover Transfer Station is closed today, but Wallaceburg’s Transfer Station is extending its hours to accommodate. They’ll be open from 8:00am-4:00pm today. You can view a list of transfer stations and their hours on the Municipality’s website.
Last night’s storm also knocked out power to hundreds of Hydro One and Entegrus customers. Power is expected to be restored by 6:00pm today. For updated information on power outages, you can visit Hydro One or Entegrus online.
