High winds Sunday wreak havoc in the Comox Valley

CHEK
WatchWinds gusting to near 70 km/h brought down trees and power lines in the Comox Valley late Sunday. Several homes were hit by falling trees causing extensive damage.

A home on Paula Place in Courtenay was one of the most heavily damaged after a tree fell on its roof during the wind storm Sunday afternoon.

Environment Canada reported wind speeds of around 50 km/hr with gusts to 70 late Sunday afternoon at the Comox Airport.

The winds blew from the northwest, which is being blamed for much of the damage.

“Trees aren’t used to getting the north wind so they’re more susceptible to blow down when those happen especially with the drought and stress they’ve had around the area,” said Esteven Ruhle of Above and Beyond Tree Service. “Plus the ground was extremely soft after all the rain lately so the roots came up easily.”

Above and Beyond was answering numerous calls in the Littel River area of Comox where numerous trees fell in the storm.

A large fir tree fell across Robbie Robinson’s driveway narrowly missing his travel trailer.

“It got worse around four o’clock and it was really blowing from the northwest, the worst I’ve ever seen and all of a sudden the power went off and this tree came down at almost the same time,” said Robinson.

The Comox Fire Department responded to 12 calls in 3.5 hours Sunday afternoon. Most of them were for trees down on power lines.

“It was nasty out there for the crews,” said Comox Fire Chief Gord Schreiner. “We were very concerned about trees coming down on fire trucks and stuff like that so in some cases we couldn’t go right to the incidents because they were too dangerous.”

Dean StoltzDean Stoltz

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