Ford pledges support to tornado victims
Ontario Premier Doug Ford pledged the province’s full support to Ottawa residents recovering from Friday’s tornadoes as he met with some of those hardest hit.
Ford made the pledge Sunday after he arrived in Dunrobin, the Ottawa neighbourhood struck by tornadoes that snapped power lines and levelled homes.
“We can replace the infrastructure, and we will. We will spare no resources in the province,” he said, noting it was a blessing that nobody was killed.
Meeting people at a local high school who had been displaced by the storm, Ford offered his sympathies and reassurances.
“We’re putting the resources in, we are going to get it done,” he told a woman seeking refuge at the school. “It’s devastating.” “It is,” she responded tearfully. The premier was accompanied by city Mayor Jim Watson as he toured houses ravaged by the twister that tore through the tight-knit community before jumping the Ottawa River to Gatineau, Que.
Ford praised first responders for their work, and noted the resilience of local residents, many of whom were seeing the damage to their properties for the first time.
“A lot of us have never seen anything like it,” he said of the destruction.
“It’s shocking.” Meantime, hydro crews are working to untangle and repair fallen power lines and restore electricity to the region.
The national weather agency says a powerful twister — with winds that reached 265 kilometres per hour — ripped through Dunrobin, about 35 kilometres west of the downtown area, before moving on to Gatineau.
The agency said that at almost the same time a second, slightly less powerful twister, touched down in the south Ottawa neighbourhood of Arlington Woods.
The twin tornadoes caused massive damage obliterating dozens of homes, tossing vehicles around, snapping huge trees and injuring several people, at least two of whom were admitted to hospital in critical condition.