Tornado touchdowns confirmed in Vaughan and town of Durham
Posted August 21, 2009 9:30 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Residents have surveyed the extensive damage caused by a wild and dangerous storm that hit several Ontario communities, Thursday.
The storm flattened buildings, stripped the roofs off of houses and toppled trees and power lines across southern Ontario. It descended quickly on many communities and disappeared just as fast.
Funnel clouds developed all over the GTA, a massive one even made its way through downtown Toronto.
Related Content
- Aerial video of the storm’s aftermath: courtesy of City News
- Mayor David Miller issues statement on Thursday night’s storm
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Environment Canada has confirmed two F2 tornadoes – one in the town of Durham and another in the city of Vaughan – touched down during Thursday’s violent storm. They are checking out reports of other tornadoes.
An F2 tornado usually has winds between 180 and 250 km/h.
Vaughan Mayor Linda Jackson held a news conference, Friday, to discuss the vicious storm.
It appears Vaughan suffered the brunt of the damage and the city still remains under a state of emergency.
For one, St. Peters Catholic Elementary School in Woodbridge has been deemed completely unsafe.
Jackson said the goal is for the safe return of residents to their homes.
She emphasized Vaughan is very thankful for the support they are receiving from other municipalities and the federal government. Jackson also said emergency crews were phenomenal in their response.
Cars were tossed in the air and roofs were ripped off of homes in Woodbridge, as neighbours were left shaken by the fury of the storm.
Jackson said 600 homes are in a severe state and 44 of those houses may need to be demolished.Â
And Local fire chief Greg Senay said 120 homes were so badly damaged they had to be evacuated. Police and fire crews conducted a home-by-home search to make sure everyone was safe.
Emergency crews worked late into the night attending to the damage and searching for possible victims.
Luckily, nobody was seriously injured or killed; however, one man whose house was left in ruins may have not been able to cope. Police said “[the man] suffered a serious heart attack [Friday] morning and is now in a coma.”
Tony, who lives in Woodbridge, was left homeless after his home was flattened by the storm. He told 680News his family spent a sleepless night in a hotel room. “It’s absolutely devastating,” he said.
“We certainly felt that we met the criteria to declare a state of emergency within the city of Vaughan, which certainly allows us to open emergency shelters and to be able to rely on provincial support like Emergency Management Ontario to assist us […],” Vaughan Mayor Linda Jackson told 680News Thursday night.
Jackson added people will have to wait until their homes are deemed safe to retrieve any belongings or documents.
Home Depot has offered free plywood to Vaughan residents affected by the tornado to help cover damaged roofs, windows and doors.
As well, volunteers were out in the community offering assistance and clean-up support.
Meantime, officials said an 11-year-old boy was killed during the devastating storm and tornado touchdown in the the town of Durham.
Several others were injured after the storm tore through a conservation area where a day camp was being held. The other injuries were said not to be life-threatening.
The acting mayor of Durham Dan Sullivan said it will take months of work to remove the “scars” on the community. Sullivan said his town is now in the recovery phase after the storm.
The system ripped through at about 4:15 p.m. Thursday. A few residents said they saw low-rolling clouds at ground level. One resident called the damage “complete destruction.”
An industrial park at the south-end of town took the brunt of it, with up to five buildings demolished.
Other buildings were left untouched. It then skipped over town into residential areas before touching down again in the countryside, plowing though concession roads like a freight train.
The extreme thunderstorms also caused widespread power outages across the province, including Toronto, Whitby and Oshawa.
Hydro One crews spent the night re-attaching downed power lines, which left some 69,000 homes and businesses in the dark at one point.
By Friday morning, power had been restored in many areas serviced by the utility, but thousands were still waiting for service. Hydro One officials said it could be Saturday afternoon before all customers have power restored.
“It could be a blown transformer, it could be a tree that has even just touched on the wire and triggered an outage. […] In addition to trying to restore the power, they’re trying to clean up as well.”
Veridian Connections Inc. said about 25,000 of its customers were without power in Bowmanville, Newcastle, parts of Ajax and Pickering, and other communities.
The wild weather also resulted in numerous flight cancellations and delays at Pearson International Airport on Thursday.
Environment Canada Meteorologist Geoff Coulson said that while central and southwestern Ontario was most affected by the storm’s fury, areas to the north were also affected.
“We also had reports of significant damage in the Lake Nippissing area, Powassan, North Bay and that’s another possible site we’ll be looking at.”
Coulson said it’s “very fortunate” there weren’t more casualties. “In looking at the damage (and) the aerial footage of the damage to Woodbridge and the Maple area, I think a lot of people were very fortunate we weren’t having more significant injuries.”
The weather office said the storm is one of the worst it has seen in years.
At one point on Thursday, Environment Canada took the unusual step of advising people to take shelter in basements or other secure areas.
