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Reminder, use voltage testers on all bell plant due to possible stray hydro.

As a refresher please refer to ESPP Module 21 on the use and application of the voltage tester.

The tornado warnings have lifted but residents across southern Ontario are still dealing with the aftermath of Thursday’s violent storm.

An 11-year-old boy was killed during the wicked weather, which also destroyed homes and businesses, toppled trees, and left thousands of people without power.

Teams from Environment Canada are out in Ontario assessing the damage.

At a press conference on Friday, officials confirmed that the person who died was an 11-year-old boy.

He had been attending a day camp in a conversation area.

Witnesses report the young victim was inside a tent with other children when a possible tornado blew through Durham, just south of Owen Sound.

A state of emergency has been declared in the town of 2500 people. His name has not been released.

Environment Canada said it considered the events of the day the worst it had seen in years.

"From year to year we do tend to get at least one big defining event and it does appear that the events of Aug. 20 will be one of these large scale events," said meteorologist Geoff Coulson.

"Now it's just a question of trying to figure out how much damage it caused, its path and rating."

Tornadoes were also reported in Vaughan, Newmarket and Collingwood.

In fact, Vaughan Mayor Linda Jackson declared a state of emergency for her region. During the warning, 175 homes were so badly damaged that they had to be evacuated.

Across the province, roughly 69,000 Hydro One customers were without power, and there were other outages in the Toronto area.

As of 8am Friday, there were 4500 Toronto Hydro customers still without power. That's a big drop from the storm's highest point, which saw 25,000 homes go dark.

The majority of problems concentrated in the following neighbourhoods:
- Warden Avenue and St. Clair Avenue
- Wexford Street and Lawrence Avenue
- Islington Avenue West
- Bayview Avenue and Lawrence Avenue

Because of the damage - at least 25 main power feeder lines and hundreds of secondary service lines were brought down by the storm - repairs could take a while.

Toronto Hydro warned that the job might not be finished until Friday evening or later.

In Ottawa, Prime Minister Stephen Harper promised that the federal government would provide assistance where it could to those affected by the storm.

"We share our thoughts and prayers with any who have lost lives or have dislocation because of this," Harper said.

"Obviously the government of Canada, where appropriate, will work with local and provincial authorities to deal with this situation."

With files from The Canadian Press.

Image credit: Renee B. - Brampton.

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