Severe Winter Storm Batters Northumberland County

Pete Fisher
2 years ago
• Categories: Editor Choice, Local

Take a deep breath – it’s not over yet.

The damage from the storm of 2022 won’t be calculated until at least Christmas Eve and that’s only if the winds die down.

Forecasters take a beating for when they’re wrong, but they were right on the money with this one.

Driving rain in the early morning of December 23. As the morning went on strong gusts of winds picked, pelting rain, then snow, and it just keeps coming.

Trees were on fire, fell on wires, fell upon vehicles, blocked roadways, were uprooted and fell on houses.

If you weren’t effected by the storm consider yourself lucky – very lucky.

Lakefront Utilities restored power to approximately 2,500 customers in Cobourg at approximately 10 p.m.

It’s unknown how many others are without power in Lakefront Utilities coverage area.

“Unfortunately, the heavy winds and snow have created an unsafe work environment for crews. Due to the unsafe conditions, restoration time is taking longer, 12 to 23 hours,” Lakefront Utilities posted on their website.

As of 1:42 p.m. on December 24, 2022, hundreds of people across Northumberland County are still without power looking at Ontario Hydro’s website.

On the roads, two veteran OPP officers said it was the worst storm conditions they’d seen in their careers.

High winds and white outs constantly battered the area roads.

Numerous collisions were reported along the highway and rural roads, but there were no reports of any major injuries.

During the day every fire department in Northumberland County was dispatched to some sort of emergency. Several fire departments including Cobourg Fire Department were nearly non-stop with calls throughout the day. Mainly they were dispatched to arcing wires, or trees that had fallen on wires and caught fire, but there were also collisions.

County Road 28 north of Port Hope had to be shut down for a period of time because of a multi-vehicle collision.

Brad Willcocks, owner of Best Western Inn and Convention Centre in Cobourg said he had approximately 150 people that were brought in off Highway 401 and area roads because of the storm.

With the severe weather, people had no where to go.

Willcocks said he had opened up every meeting room for people to sleep. There were even people sleeping in the lobby of the Best Western Inn.

A number of hospital staff also stayed overnight because they couldn’t get home and had to be back in to work on Christmas Eve so they stayed at the Best Western Inn.

In Cobourg, Cobourg Police quickly came to the aid of person who fell on King Street at Spring Street because of the high winds.

The officers helped the man to his feet and helped him to the police cruiser for warmth.

Police have stated throughout the storm that people should stay off the roads whenever possible.

When the winds subside it will still take considerable time for the clean-up.