Wednesday winds took down trees, knocked out power for thousands in Halifax

Thankfully, Hurricane Teddy didn't bring the widespread destruction manywere expecting when it made landfall in Nova Scotialast week.

But when high winds swept through the region on Wednesday, they knocked out power for about 9,000 Nova Scotia Power customers in Halifax and felled some of the city'strees.

Halifax taxi driver Kuldip Dhunna was one of 17 "high priority" tree calls on Wednesday, according to Maggie-Jane Spray, a spokesperson for Halifax Regional Municipality.

Dhunna had just dropped off a passenger in the city's downtownand was waiting in his parked car for his next call.

Suddenly, he heard a loud "banging" sound.

At first, he thought another driver bumped into him from behind. But when he got out of his car he saw a big, heavy branch had fallen on his vehicle, denting the roof and cracking his windshield.

"It's not even small, it's a huge, big branch so thank God I'm okay," he said.

Dhunna called the non-emergency police line. HRP officers and firefighters came to safely remove the branch.

Despite feeling lucky he wasn't hurt, Dhunna said the whole experience was stressful.

Spray said crews were out last evening responding to 17 tree calls. During Hurricane Teddy, the city received 16 calls.

She said crews will be out for the next several days working on cleanup and maintenance, including cleaning up broken tree limbs and "corrective pruning."