Damaged homes in Vaughan, Ont., on Aug. 21 after a tornado touched down in the neighbourhood north of Toronto on Thursday night.Darren Calabrese
Durham awoke to a scene of selective devastation Friday morning as residents and emergency crews assessed the damage wreaked by a tornado that snaked a 30-kilometre path through the area late Thursday afternoon.
Roofs were ripped off buildings, siding shredded and the smell of freshly exposed wood pervaded the air as innumerable upturned trees lay sideways or hung at odd angles, their branches twisted and roots dangling.
Rod Piercey saw the looming tornado heading straight toward him from the window of his office at Thuro Web, a print shop owned by Metroland, which runs several community newspapers in the region.
He dove for the door, but by then the storm was upon the structure, ripping it to shreds.
"I saw the funnel cloud coming towards the building-the roof came off and it was daylight, and within 30 seconds it was all over," he said.
"It sounded like thunder, a train, bowling balls hitting each other. ... You don't expect a tornado to follow you to your back door."
Somehow, Mr. Piercey and the six others trapped in the building escaped without a scratch.
The 29-year-old print shop, however, is completely destroyed - wooden beams splintered like gunwhales, aluminum siding crumpled and tin roof collapsed.
Mr. Piercey said he doesn't know how much damage was done to the equipment inside, or if anything is salvageable.
"Until we get a good look inside, I don't know," he said. "The machinery can usually take a pretty good beat, but..."
The industrial park where the print shop is located was among the areas worst hit by the funnel cloud: A nearby gym has been blown through completely, and the building that housed a local furniture manufacturer has been completely eviscerated.
The tornado's path continued through a residential area and Durham's Saugeen Conservation Area, where exposed campsites and trailers suffered extensive damage Emergency Medical Services spokesman Mike Muir confirmed an 11-year-old boy from West Grey County had been killed by debris Tuesday at a day camp in the conservation area. Authorities aren't releasing the boy's name at his family's request.
Hundreds of homes in Durham remained without power at 10:30 a.m. EDT, but Hydro One operations manager Ron Matthews said crews are working to get power to the bulk of residents by late tonight.
Durham police are in a "security and checking wellbeing mode" as cleanup continues, checking on residences damaged by the storm.
Several sections of road throughout town are still closed, and Durham's acting Mayor Dan Sullivan asked the public to steer clear of crews working to clear debris and assess damage.
"We have people who know what to do out there - just give us room to do it." Environment Canada geologist Peter Kimbell said Thursday's series of four tornadoes were the worst storm the province has seen since August 2006, when 18 tornadoes touched down in southwestern Ontario.
Mr. Kimbell said the region is unlikely to see any major storm activity in the next little while: There are thunderstorm watches in place, especially in eastern parts of Ontario. There's still plenty of volatile heat and moisture in the air, he said but wind pressures likely aren't low enough to make for the same turbulent atmospheric cocktail that precipitated Thursday's destructive storm.
"We know there is lots of heat and moisture but the wind path is different," he said, adding that the changing amount of cloud cover throughout the day could change that.
The devastating thunderstorm rolled across a large stretch of the province Thursday night, generating several tornadoes that destroyed homes, tore up roofs, flipped vehicles and left at least one person dead.
At one point, Environment Canada had issued a tornado warning extending 500 kilometres between Peterborough and Windsor. The storm, and the occurrence of multiple funnel clouds, is considered a rare occurrence in the region. Recorded winds topped 80 kilometres an hour, but are expected to have been much higher where the tornadoes touched down.
Homes across the Toronto area were damaged, but the heart of the devastation was in Durham, Ont., a small town of 2,500 just south of Owen Sound and about two hours northwest of Toronto.
In Durham, a printing company and a recreation centre were destroyed. One man inside the recreation centre was hurt while seeking shelter in a sauna. In the surrounding area, age-old barns were levelled and homes damaged.
"I don't know what we're going to do. You can't clean it up," said Marg Eckhardt, who lost most of her home, all of her barn, and a Toyota Tundra truck, which had a large tree on it Thursday night. "I'm upset, hungry, tired."
Doug McLean watched from the back door of his hardware store as the two buildings directly behind him were destroyed.
"I saw the building behind me, the roof went straight up about 15 feet and came straight down," he said. "It was just total devastation.
"The wind was just phenomenal. The doors of my store were just spread open … one of my kids was trying to close the door with all his might and he couldn't. ... It's hard to believe."
The same storm system continued northeast, hitting the Collingwood, Ont., area and causing damage to homes and condominiums at the base of the Georgian Peaks ski club, as well as to trees. Damage to homes and barns was also reported in nearby rural areas.
"Certainly there's significant damage. Lots of trees are down, hydro lines and poles are snapped in half," said Ellen Anderson, mayor of The Town of The Blue Mountains. However, she said there were no serious injuries or deaths in her community.
"On the scale of life and death, it [the damage]doesn't measure up. I think we're very, very fortunate. It could have been a lot worse."
A tornado was reported about two hours later in the City of Vaughan, north of Toronto and 200 kilometres away from Durham. It appeared to be centred in the area of Highway 7 and Martin Grove Road. Photos from the site of the Vaughan storm showed many homes where the roof had been damaged, or collapsed entirely.
The City of Vaughan and Municipality of West Grey both declared a state of emergency Thursday night, which allows them to call in help from Emergency Management Ontario.
The City of Vaughan said about 120 homes, mostly in its communities of Maple and Woodbridge, were damaged or destroyed. Many were evacuated last night. Residents were able to go to the Father Ermanno Bulfon Community Centre on Martin Grove Road Thursday night for shelter.
"They're saying that several houses have been demolished, cars overturned," York Regional Police Sergeant Mike Sterchele said of his officers' reports from the scenes of the damage. "We haven't heard of any fatalities, but obviously with the damage and cars being overturned there are injuries."
Mayor Linda Jackson told a late-night news conference she was relieved that there were no serious injuries or deaths in the city.
"It's a miracle that there wasn't a person killed in this incident this evening," she said.
Another tornado was reported in Newmarket, but damage was said to be much less than in Durham or Vaughan, where police got a first-hand account as the funnel cloud passed their station.
"It passed just south of our parking lot. The standard tornado, the dark funnel cloud, it was moving at quite a speed. Then it would dissipate and come back again," Sgt. Sterchele said. "Several areas have been hit very hard."
Hydro One said it had 63,000 customers without power Thursday night, while Toronto Hydro said it had widespread outages and couldn't say how many people were affected. Trees were knocked down across the entire path of the tornado, from otherwise-unaffected parts of Toronto to the hardest-hit areas in Durham and Vaughan.
The tornadoes are considered "possible tornadoes" by Environment Canada until the agency's staff can actually survey the damage. Geoff Coulson, a warning- preparedness meteorologist, said teams would be dispatched to Durham and across the Greater Toronto Area Friday.
"We'll be trying to piece this together," he said.
He said the storm was rare in the Toronto area, and that it was unusual to see multiple funnel clouds. Once teams survey the damage, they'll be able to say what category the tornadoes were. Most Southern Ontario tornadoes are F0 or F1 storms - F5 being the strongest - but Thursday night's could possibly have been as high as an F2, which see wind speeds of between 180 and 240 km/h, Mr. Coulson speculated.
Storms of this scale are rare in the region, he said.
"I think it's been a while in the GTA in the immediate area with this number of potential tornadoes," he said. "The frequency in the GTA would not be something I'd be seeing every year."
Prime Minister Stephen Harper extended his well-wishes to those who were injured or had seen their property damaged, and hinted at his government lending a hand to the rebuilding efforts.
"They [tornadoes]are extremely destructive in the areas they hit and obviously we share our thoughts and prayers with any who have lost lives or had dislocation because of this," he said during an event in Yellowknife, NWT. "And obviously, the government of Canada, where appropriate, will work with local and provincial authorities to deal with the situation."
The devastation in Durham was widespread. Mr. Coulson said that damage is typically localized around where tornadoes touch down or hover near the ground, with wind speeds much higher in the immediate area. But tornadoes don't move in straight lines, rather they wind back and forth.
"I seen all this debris flying through the air. It was pretty clear what happened," recalled Phil Eckhardt, the brother of the woman who lost her home and barn. Mr. Eckhardt runs a variety store in Durham, and was in it with his daughter when the storm passed.
"I didn't want to let on that I was worried, but I was," he said. "There's all kinds of damage."
Thursday night in the town, officials huddled in meetings in the municipal office, which was running only on generators.
"I guess the one thing with tornados is the damage is done, so we're at the stage now where we're picking up the pieces and putting the community back together. You know what you're dealing with. It allows you to catch your breath," Mr. Sullivan said, adding that eight homes had been severely damaged. The municipality has planned a press conference for 9:30 Friday morning.
A CTV report said it took an ambulance 25 minutes to reach the conservation area and the injured boy. Mr. Sullivan said that broken trees covered many of the roads in the community, but could not comment specifically on any delay.
" I was hearing a lot of police and our works crew were having trouble getting to their vehicles. With the trees being down there may have been some issues there, but I cant comment on a delay of an ambulance," he said.
Late Thursday, Mr. McLean was back in his store, selling generators and tarps. Along nearby highways, locals gathered to cut down trees blocking access to the homes that were unscathed. They awaited the arrival of insurance adjusters and grieved the reported death of the person found in the conservation area, whose identity wasn't released.
"Everybody's trying to help as much as they can," Mr. McLean said. "I hope I never see it again. You can't describe it with words."
With a report from CTV