David Sills sends 2 survey crews after storm, London Free Press

London Free Press says much of southern Ontario was cleaning up Wednesday after a powerful storm ripped through the Hamilton area on Tuesday night. Environment Canada reported at least two possible tornadoes, one in Burgessville and the other in Springford, as crews and investigators moved into affected areas.

Emergency alerts warned of destructive winds of up to 130 km/h, quarter-sized hail and intense rain, and residents were urged to take cover immediately. Hamilton police said they received several calls about downed lines and traffic concerns, and said there were no reported injuries.

David Sills in London area

David Sills, the director of the Northern Tornadoes Project, said the team had two survey crews in action Wednesday, one in the London area and the other in the Huntsville area. The Western University team was investigating reports of tornadoes and wind damage, while Ontario Storm Watch warned that suspicious tornado photos circulating online appeared to have been created with AI.

Springford sits between London and Brantford, putting one of the possible tornado reports near a stretch of southern Ontario that was still assessing damage Wednesday. The other report, in Burgessville, added to the investigation as the storm left multiple communities dealing with cleanup and response work.

Alectra outage in Waterdown

Alectra’s outage map reported a couple of outages in the Hamilton area, including one in Waterdown that affected over 1,000 customers. Restoration for that outage was estimated between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m., giving affected residents a limited morning window for service to return.

For people in the storm path, the immediate next step is checking for damaged lines, blocked roads and power restoration updates while crews continue surveys and repairs. The damage reports are still being sorted out, but Wednesday’s ground checks and outage estimates show the cleanup had already started across the region.