Tornado researchers will check out the damage in Kingsville, Harrow, and Blenheim
This morning, thousands of people still don’t have power from Harrow, Ontario, in Essex County, to Highgate, Ontario, on the east side of Chatham-Kent.
For the second week in a row, a violent thunderstorm in southwestern Ontario has caused a lot of damage in many places.
This time, most of the bad weather was in the southern part of Essex County.
Nicole Primeau said that no one was hurt in Kingsville during the storm on Wednesday night, but the administrator at Augustine Villas, a retirement home in the southern Essex County town, said there were some scary moments.
“Four people have had to move out of their rooms because the tree broke through the roof,” Primeau said.
Some people who needed oxygen machines but didn’t have power were taken to a hotel in nearby Leamington.
“Their machines won’t be able to be charged.”
Primeau said that the community has been very helpful. The mayor of the town, Dennis Rogers, even came out to make sure the fire department checked the building’s structure.
“They gave us permission to take the branch out of the building. Many people came out to help with that job and make a quick fix until we could start the real work.”
Even though the building didn’t have power or a fire alarm system, Primeau said that some residents were going to stay in the building overnight Wednesday. Staff would watch the complex and the residents.
“We have to take 30-minute walks to make sure the building is safe and to make sure all the residents are comfortable, not too hot, getting enough water, and getting whatever care they need to be safe.”
‘It’s quite a disaster
The storm uprooted a huge, old tree on the street in front of Anthony Thachuk’s house.
The Kingsville homeowner says it’s lucky that he and his wife weren’t home when it fell and that their cars weren’t in the driveway.
“It was a big surprise when I got home,” said Thachuk.
“The tree fell just right so that it didn’t hit our house and barely hit the house next door.”
Thachuk said Wednesday night that his street was “basically in ruins” and that “it’s quite a disaster.”
Melissa Deblock is Thachuk’s neighbor, and she’s not sure if the town was hit by a tornado or not.
She said that she and her family were in the house when their phones started going off, so she took her kids to the basement.
“It was just so unbelievable.”
“I was standing at my back door when we heard this loud sound. It was like getting a jolt. And my clothesline fell, and then the trees fell… and it was finished before the time was up.”
Deblock thinks that the storm’s worst part only lasted a few minutes.
She said that when her neighbor’s big tree was uprooted, it was very loud and sounded like a freight train.
“And then you could only hear a loud roar. When we looked out, everything was on the ground. “Wow, what the heck happened?”
Similar stories of damage are coming out of Harrow
The mayor of Essex, which includes the town of Harrow, told CBC News that people in the area told her about what might have been two tornadoes.
Sherry Bondy said that she was out with town crews and the OPP Wednesday night looking at the damage caused by the storm. She said that the damage was widespread in the southern half of the municipality.
“There was a lot of wind, and many people said it sounded like a wind storm,” Bondy said.
“All of my trash and recycling was strewn all over my lawn,” I said. The fence of my neighbor is broken.”
Today, teams from Western University will be sent by the Northern Tornadoes Project to look at the damage around Kingsville, Harrow, and Blenheim.
During the storm that hit southwestern Ontario last week, tornadoes were seen in Chatham-Kent County and Lambton County.
Because of the storm, the Essex Region Conservation Authority (ERCA) put out a flood watch for the area on Wednesday. It will end at midnight Thursday morning.