Extreme weather causes floods, fires in North Bay area

Waterways in the North Bay area are unseasonably high and could continue to rise with more rain in the forecast.

The North Bay-Mattawa Conservation Authority says a flood outlook is in place after 35 millimeters of rain fell in less than four hours last night.

Chippewa Creek overtopped its banks and the authority says flash flooding occurred throughout the city.

Residents in low lying areas are encouraged to monitor conditions are they develop.

Hydro outages

That weather system also caused problems in the West Nipissing area last night.

Fire chief Richard Maranada says crews were called after 6:00 p.m. when lightning struck a tree along Highway 17 between Sturgeon Falls and Jocko Point.

He says that tree fell on power lines, caused a fire and an outage. According to Hydro One, some customers are still affected but are expected to have their hydro back on later today.

Maranda says firefighters were also called to Field after lightning struck a barn along Giroux-Vesina Road. There were no animals inside but the fire damaged the structure.