Half of Monmouth Road Blacks Out. Area Population May see Growth.

Large bore Poplar tree snapped in higdh winds.
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Hydro crew removing tree in front of Francis Bakery.

Brittle Poplar tree with ant damage snapped just above the fence.

Old Walkerville was hit hard by storms this past Friday and one funny thing happened.  High winds snapped a 150 foot Poplar tree that nearly crushed the Francis Pita Factory on Walker Road causing pita  production to go flat.  Fortunately the building was saved by high voltage power lines in the alley.  The tree instead, got caught up in this 16,000 volt line ripping feeds from Monmouth homes and the Francis Pita factory before the main line eventually snapped at Niagra.  Power was cut off to the entire East side of Monmouth from Niagra Street to Wyandotte Street for the next seventeen hours.

It seems that two parties broke out right after the power failure.  The west side of the street with power partied loudly into the wee hours while the east side of the block went unusually quiet with the only sign of life being the faint glow of candle light eminating from just about every home.  Nobody on the entire block had any clue about the downed tree in the alley or the 16,000 volt line lying on the ground and sparking away like Dr. Frankenstein's lab.

The supervisor for the Hydro crew said that poplar trees are notorius for causing damage because they are very brittle.  In this instance he said the problem was aggravated by a carpenter ant infestation.  The tree snapped at that weak point.  These trees are also notorious for crushing sewer pipes, forcing very costly repairs. 

As the next morning was heralded by the sound of cars and people heading towards Art in the Park the roadies on the west side of the street were still sleeping off hangovers while everyone on the east side were up and about with bratty, glowing smiles.  That glow eventually turned to angst as east side roadies started to realize that they couldn't brew coffee at home and that the old stand-by, Tim Hortons, was also without power.

By one P.M. on Saturday all of the homes on Monmouth were up and running again.  So too was the Francis Pita Factory as was evident by it's workers who showed up to charge Art in the Park patrons for parking in their lot. 

The actual effect of this power outage will be more accurately measured in about nine months.