On May 21st 2022 between the hours of 12:30pm and 1:30pm, an extreme wind weather event passed through most of Ontario including the City of Markham, resulting in catastrophic damage to trees, utilities, structures and resulted in many obstructed roadways, walkways, trails and private entrances. Operations mobilized standby staff and our emergency contractor right away. We would like to take this opportunity to provide an update on the actions taken so far and the action plan moving forward.
City staff and City contractors have been engaged daily since 2:00pm on Saturday May 21,2022, coordinating and participating in clean-up of tree related debris City wide. The City presently has 2 contracted arborist crews assisting City in house crews to assist blockage removal and site cleanup with priority given to locations that pose safety concerns, public right of way followed with parks then City’s facilities.
To-date, Forestry has received approximately 1,000 ACR’s regarding tree damage and requests continue to come in, which we continue to prioritize beginning with roadways, sidewalk and resident impacts to private property. The areas most affected are Ward 1 (Old Thornhill), 3 (Old Unionville) and 4 (Old Markham). City staff have completed inspections of City parks and facilities and have prioritized work in these areas where public safety could be affected. Our teams are currently inspecting watercourses throughout the City and prioritizing work based on blockages, City trees on private property and impacts to other infrastructure for action by qualified contractors.
Staff has further engaged 7 additional contracted services arborist crews in total of 9 crews to assist the City arborist team with its clean-up efforts. These additional crews will begin May 30, next Monday. Additional special yard waste pick-ups is arranged for Saturday May 28 and Monday May 30. Tree debris that cannot be picked up by Miller Waste will be attended to by our team in the future weeks as this operation can be slow and time consuming.
Operations staff are currently preparing an action plan to address related issues such as wood chips, large wood removal, tree removals, stump grinding and tree planting as part of our recovery phase.
The Operations Department is fully engaged and have resources committed 7 days per week to affect a timely resolution of the impacts which residents are experiencing. Based on the volume of trees damaged and the time required to complete the clean-up, a combined effort from City staff and contractors coupled with patience from Markham residents will ensure neighborhoods clean-ups are completed in a timely and efficient manner. Our team will be moving grid by grid throughout the City completing clean up, inspection and inventory tracking. We anticipate this will take us a number of weeks to complete these tasks. Operations is tracking progress daily and will provide further updates each Friday afternoon until the recovery period is complete.
We thank all of our residents for their support, collaboration since the event hit our City and patience as we continue our clean up and recovery plan. Please report any tree damage to the Contact Centre for all matters related to the wind storm for tracking purpose and efficient prioritize and dispatch to the proper staff member.
Please find FAQ’s for Emergency Preparedness in reference to the storm.
Please report any tree damage HERE
