Watch traffic light fall, car burn on 427 in windy mayhem

by  • 

https://twitter.com/TheMikeSirois/status/992529762366115842

Fleming Cres. blacked out as wires, old Maple down in wind

by  • 

Keep smilng

Fleming Crescent and homes nearby were blacked out Friday night after winds snapped wires all along the street and brought down an 90-year-old Maple near Parkhurst Blvd. The owner of the tree said he knew from the sound the tree was making late in the afternoon that there was trouble coming. But there was nothing he could do. Free fire wood until it’s gone.

Wires down at many homes
Free firewood
Old roots gave up

High winds and downed trees bring power outages to GTA

by  • 

Broken electrical lines attached to a twisting metal sign cause sparks on the top of a TTC streetcar on Friday afternoon. (Nick Murphy/Submitted to CBC)
Shingles fly (Photo: Naomi Parness / Twitter @naomiparness)
Albemarle Ave in Riverdale (Photo: Sam Bornstein / Twitter @SuasionSam)

As many as 100,000 customers across Toronto were without power Friday night as a result of the surprisingly damaging afternoon wind storm.  A large outage eoccurred in near East York across the Don Valley. The blackout stretched from Danforth across Mortimer Ave up to parts of O’Connor Drive. Toronto Hydro appealed for patience as it worked to restore electricity. Former CTV reporter Naomi Parness tweeted a picture of shingled and social media saw dozens of photos of fallen trees. Caution is still urged around downed power lines. Toronto Hydro suggests drivers stay at least 10 metres back (length of a school bus) to be safe.

TREE WORKER KILLED

A man working on trees has been killed in Milton and another seriously injured in the fall of a tree Friday. Halton Regional Police say the men were working on a tree in the area of Side Road 20 and Fourth Line Nassagaweya in Milton this afternoon when the tree collapsed. A man in his 50s was struck by a falling tree in the Bloor Street West and Windermere Avenue area of Etobicoke, Toronto paramedics said. The man was taken to local hospital for treatment of undetermined injuries.

Traffic light at unstated location
Woman tweeted swinging chandelier in her high-rise condo

Couple acquitted but authorities get peace bond just in case

by  • 

Sabrine Djermane
El Mahdi Jamali

A Montreal couple acquitted on the majority of terrorism-related charges have signed a peace bond after authorities were still frankly suspicious about what they might do. Canadian Press reports that Sabrine Djermane and El Mahdi Jamali agreed to sign an undertaking Friday to keep the peace over the next 12 months and respect a host of conditions. They were charged last year with conspiring to commit a terrorist act but subsequently acquitted except for a conviction against Jamali for possession of an explosive charge

Kids all safe as wrong-way bus strikes cars, falls into river

by  • 

Dramatic landing for this school bus/City News
CP24
City News

All 17 kids aboard are safe after a school bus lost power on a hill and rolled backwards, smashed into two cars and finally landed in the Humber River ravine. This occurred on Humber Lea Road between King Street East and Kingsview Drive in Bolton about 8:15 a.m. OPP PC Tamara Schubert says that no injuries have been reported as a result of the crash. As reported by City News, it was a frightening trip to school for the area students. Paramedics say one person was taken to hospital as a precaution. The person’s age and gender and not yet known. This will probably have been the driver of a car. The bus was trying to make its way up a steep hill when it stalled near the top and started to roll backwards towards the bridge over the Humber. The bus struck the side of the bridge and ended up in a ditch near the river. “The rear of the bus was hanging over the river,” Schubert said. The OPP later said the tail end of the bus hit the water. The bus hit a Jeep and a Ford during the crash. “We rolled down the hill and we avoided one truck, a pickup truck. We just dinged a Jeep and the bus hit a red Ford,” a 14-year-old student who was on the bus told City.

Leaside barriers a benign cul-de-sac or selfish imposition?

by  • 

The vote on a pilot plan to close Glenvale Blvd., Broadway Ave. and Craig Crescent with concrete barriers has electrified Leaside. Discussion, concern, defenses and damnations of the scheme are published from beyond North Leaside where people are permitted to vote. Is it a benign cul-de-sac or a selfish imposition on others? Friday morning the posts at Leaside Community number perhaps 200, maybe more. Those in favour speak mostly about the safety of children but frequently simply complain about  traffic. It’s understandable. Drivers making illegal turns into the three streets in question want to avoid a busy intersection at Eglinton. It’s made much worse by the LRT insanity but as a practice it is done everywhere. Others posting, like those to the west of Leaside and south of Eglinton think they are being made scapegoats. The terms of the pilot contain verbal provisions that any impact on South Leaside traffic will nullify a permanent closure. How this will be decided is an open question. Assurances have been made that emergency services see “no problem” but immutable time and distance makes this seem challenging. In many public discussions no paramedic, police or fire officials have been seen. The plan, as explained at links below, has many conditions which might end it. Leaside Community

GoodLife Fitness Marathon to close many roads on Sunday

by  • 

The GoodLife Fitness Marathon set for this Sunday will again close dozens of roads during the day. The closures begin at 6 a.m. in North York and in Midtown stay to the east of Yonge St. until the marathon crosses Yonge at Belmont/Aylmer to go down Rosedale Valley Rd. to lower Bayview Ave. Have a look.

ALSO ON THE ROAD

Clammy morning to give way to “warm and wild’ afternoon

by  • 

Forecaster Chris Scott calls for an “extraordinary” weather day across Southern Ontario in which a damp, clammy morning will give way to a warm and wild afternoon with damaging winds for all and severe thunderstorms for some Wind gusts between 70 to 90 km/h or higher will be strong enough to cause minor tree and building damage with local power outages possible as well

Power out after tree fall on Blythwood Rd. in Lawrence Park

by  • 

Councillor Jaye Robinson tweeted Thursday night that Hydro is working to restore power to a large area of Ward 25 between Yonge St. and Lawrence Ave. A tree fell on Blythwood Rd. striking the Glengrove power station.

Forum Research shows PC Party polling strong in Toronto

by  • 

Polls show strong support for PC Party
Facebook love
Beards for female fans

City News reports on recurring polls by Forum Research showing that the PC Party is looking strong in Liberal Toronto. Then, an interesting take, again from City, on the case (or not) for a tax on owners of houses that are sitting empty. Below that, the excruciating details on how Facebook is going to make you happy forever. And finally, as shown above, women are sticking fake beards on their faces so they can get into the soccer stadium in Iran. They are not legally permitted in, you know.






Musk dismisses analyst as “not cool” to send stock plunging

by  • 

Elon Musk
Car into space
Idolized by many

Elon Musk was especially brusk in dealing with an RBC analyst Thursday. His manner seemed odd even for a man who makes a practice of it. As the electric car and solar panel company announced a record first-quarter loss, the Tesla CEO cut off two analysts who sought some basic answers: details about the company’s cash needs and orders for its all-important Model 3 mass-market electric car. “These questions are so dry. They’re killing me,” Musk said as he dismissed an RBC Capital Markets analyst in favour of a blogger who served up queries more to his liking. Musk called the analyst questions boring and “not cool.” Shares fell quickly in after-hours trading, and analysts began writing that Musk shouldn’t bite the hands that feed his company’s enormous cash needs because soon he may need more. By Thursday afternoon, Tesla stock had lost nearly 6 per cent of its value.

OTHER BUSINESS LEADS

Home sales, prices down in April over last year says TREB

by  • 

The Toronto Real Estate Board says home sales in April were down 32.1 per cent compared with a year ago. The board says there were 7,792 homes sold through its MLS system last month compared with 11,468 a year ago. The average selling price was $804,584, down 12.4 per cent compared with the same month last year. CP24