Freak twister with winds over 180 km/h damages 310 buildings in Lachute
There was a warning of possible violent storms in the Lachute area Tuesday, but only the usual summer weather warning, residents say — nothing to make them think a tornado was imminent.
“It was raining hard,” said Mathieu Plante, who runs an electronics store in the Quebec town, about an hour-and-a-half’s drive east of Ottawa. “You couldn’t see anything.”
Then the tornado hit around 6:15 p.m.
Mayor Carl Péloquin said the tornado damaged approximately 310 buildings, and about 20 residences cannot be used, forcing some 40 people out of their homes.
The town set up emergency shelters but it didn’t need them.
“Everybody went to their family or friends,” the mayor said.
“We didn’t have any injuries at all. We were pretty lucky. That’s the good news of the day,” he said.
In some cases, the damage is relatively minor — garages flattened, trees uprooted, pools flipped over. But five or six houses have had the entire roof destroyed and structural damage lower down, so these will need major repairs, he said.
“It’s obvious that will take a few months.”
Half the town lost its power at first, and that was coming back gradually. By mid-afternoon Wednesday, 2,300 customers were still without power.
Péloquin said Environment Canada visited the town Wednesday and confirmed it was a category F1 tornado with winds of more than 180 km/h.
“We don’t have any history of tornadoes like that at all,” he said. “We had warning in the afternoon like we have on a regular basis everywhere in our region.
“In summertime, that happens quite often.”
The storm also brought large hail to Lachute, which is northwest of Montreal.
“It (the tornado) went maybe two or three kilometres in a line,” Plante said.
“It was a corridor about 200 feet wide.”
The region is waiting for an announcement of financial aid from the Quebec government.