Severe Storms, Possible Tornado Rip Through Durham Region
Posted July 3, 2006 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
As early evening approached in southeastern Ontario Monday night, word of a tornado warning made the rounds in Durham Region.
A few hours later, so did some serious storms.
“I’m just amazed at how much damage there is,” said Cobourg resident Cindy Henderson.
“My son’s car’s under there … I didn’t know how bad it was, but nobody got hurt that’s the main thing.”
Heavy rain and vicious winds whipped through many of the neighbouring towns, and perhaps the most amazing thing was how quickly the weather went from calm to absolutely furious.
“We didn’t even have time to react, the way it went through,” said Shawn Coull, Henderson’s son.
“It went from a light rain … to a full on hail to winds of, if I had to guess, well in excess of 150 miles an hour … you couldn’t stand up.”
Reports of destroyed property were frequent in the area throughout the night, with barns, vehicles and trees badly shaken and torn apart.
Several roads were blocked in the area directly north of Cobourg, and hydro was out for about 7,000 customers. As for the actual appearance of a tornado, the only reports were unconfirmed ones, but there was plenty of damage done either way.
“There was a wind tunnel aiming straight up, and everything just went straight up,” said one witness.
Emergency crews in the region will be kept busy throughout the next few days clearing roads, and it’s expected to take roughly that long before all the debris is cleared away and business is back to normal.
