An image of storm damage from Sept. 7, 2021 in Port Elgin. (Saugeen Shores Police Twitter)
Thousands of residences and businesses in Bruce and Grey counties remain without power after Tuesday evening’s severe thunderstorms and probable tornadoes.
Hydro One is reporting several outages along the Lake Huron shoreline including in Southampton, Port Elgin, Tiverton, Kincardine and Lurgan Beach, among other communities.
Most of Port Elgin remains in the dark this morning.
There was another major outage reported in Grey County around Dundalk affecting over 2,000 customers earlier this morning. It appears to have been restored. There are several other smaller power outages reported across Bruce and Grey counties.
The estimated restoration time from Hydro One at this point for most of the larger outages is around 6 p.m. Wednesday evening.
Several schools in Saugeen Shores and in Mildmay are closed on Wednesday due to power outages.
According to the Student Transportation Service Consortium of Grey Bruce, Port Elgin-Saugeen Central School, Saugeen District Secondary School, Saugeen District Elementary School and Northport Elementary School, St. Joseph’s in Port Elgin, and Immaculate Conception School in Mildmay are all closed.
The Bluewater District School Board now says Highpoint Community School in Dundalk will be open today, as power has been restored. Earlier this morning that school was reported closed.
All school buses into Port Elgin & Southampton, including Saugeen First Nation buses are cancelled today.
There are several other bus routes not running in Bruce and Grey counties this morning. You can find all the latest bus cancellation and school closure information here.
Bruce County Road 13 between Keewaydin Road and Eckford Avenue near Southampton is closed due to downed hydro lines.
A witness tells Bayshore Broadcasting News Bruce County Road 13 is littered with downed trees and debris between Southampton and Sauble Beach.
Another witness tells us several roads are closed in Port Elgin due to downed trees or power lines.
A social media video appears to depict at least one tornado that was on the ground in Bruce County Tuesday evening.
There’s been reports of serious storm damage in Port Elgin and Lucknow, including uprooted trees, stripped rooftops and toppled structures. A social media image shows a barn near Lucknow that sustained extensive damage. Another photo shows a housing structure that appears to have been under construction toppled over in Saugeen Shores.
Bayshore Broadcasting News has reached out to Environment Canada for further details about preliminary assessments.
Port Elgin is getting clobbered. Tornado? #ONStorm pic.twitter.com/bEMZntHjJt
— Az (@Azuziel) September 7, 2021
Recent photos shared by @SSPSofficial on Facebook @rockthebruce @NewsBayshore pic.twitter.com/gyqFqGlyCE
— John Divinski (@JDivinski) September 7, 2021
This was taken by Dave McRae in Port Elgin today…just before a tornado… pic.twitter.com/lbsa9YUfcF
— Paddy Gillard-Bentley (@PaddyGB) September 8, 2021