What started as just another Tuesday evening in London quickly turned into a scene straight out of a disaster movie when a sudden storm rolled through the city, leaving a trail of destruction that has London Hydro crews scrambling to restore power to thousands of residents.

The storm, which hit with surprising intensity despite its brief duration, packed enough punch to snap power poles like twigs and send power lines tumbling to the ground across the city. London Hydro took to social media late Tuesday night to update residents on the extensive damage, revealing that what looked like a quick weather event had actually delivered quite the wallop.

“For a quick storm, there was quite a bit of damage, broken poles, and downed lines,” London Hydro posted on their official account, painting a picture of crews working through the night to assess the situation.

The utility company’s strategy involves a methodical approach to getting the lights back on. Rather than tackling repairs randomly, crews are first working to locate and isolate the areas that took the biggest hit from the storm. This tactical move is designed to help restore power to as many customers as possible in the shortest amount of time.

But here’s where things get a bit more concerning for residents – the storm wasn’t done with London just yet. Even as crews were responding to the initial wave of outages, more gusts of wind and hail continued to knock out power to additional customers throughout the night.

Some neighbourhoods are facing a particularly rough situation. Byron, one of the areas that bore the brunt of the storm’s fury, is looking at potential outages lasting up to 24 hours. The damage in this area has been described as extensive, which means residents there might be camping out by candlelight for quite a while longer.

London Hydro has been keeping residents in the loop through their outage map, which provides real-time updates on affected areas and estimated restoration times. The utility company stressed that their crews are working around the clock to clean up the mess and get the power grid back to normal, but with broken poles and downed lines scattered across multiple neighbourhoods, it’s going to take time.

The timing couldn’t have been more inconvenient for London residents, many of whom were likely settling in for the evening when the lights suddenly went out. The storm’s quick arrival caught many off guard, transforming what should have been a typical Tuesday night into an unexpected adventure in flashlight navigation and smartphone battery conservation.

As repair crews continue their work across the city, London Hydro is asking for patience from affected customers. The combination of broken infrastructure and ongoing weather challenges means that some areas will remain without power well into Wednesday, with the hardest-hit neighbourhoods potentially facing even longer waits before normal service resumes.