Twister tears a huge hole in the roof at Arlington Woods church

Worshippers sing, pray in parking lot

Some wiped away tears as members of Arlington Woods Free Methodist Church met in the church’s parking lot Sunday morning to pray and to sing Amazing Grace amid a chorus of chainsaws.

The church was forced to move its service outdoors after Friday’s tornado ripped much of the roof off the church hall, causing an estimated hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage.

About 50 people, some holding rakes and wearing work gloves, gathered for a brief outdoor service under the shadow of the damaged roof before heading into the nearby Arlington Woods neighbourhood to help clean up damage from flattened trees and broken homes.

“This is a sad time. There are people in our community who are really grieving today,” Pastor Mike Hogeboom said. “There has been loss. I saw people walking around almost zombielike. My heart goes out to you as pastor of the church here. We want you to know you are loved and cared for and we want to do whatever we can to help you.”

Pastor Ben Spears was in the church basement when the tornado hit just before 6 p.m. Friday.

“It was pretty scary, just to come up and see the devastation in our community,” he said. “A lot of people were panicked.”

Spears said it was amazing that no one was seriously injured. A youth group had been scheduled to meet in the hall at 7 p.m. Friday.

“For it to tear apart the roof this building and the roofs of some of those houses and flatten the trees like toothpicks, it is amazing that so many people were protected through that.”

One elderly woman was trapped in her home nearby and had to be rescued by first responders shortly after the tornado, neighbours said, but there were no major injuries in the area, which took a major hit from the second tornado to slash through Ottawa on Friday.

James O’Grady, who wiped tears from his eyes during the service, moved to the neighbourhood with his family when he was three and still lives on hard-hit Parkland Crescent. He is past president of the Trend-Arlington Community Association. His neighbours had trees go through their roofs, smash into the living room in one case and through an exterior wall into a bed in another. O’Grady ’s home, where he lives with his disabled mother, received only minor damage.

When the storm hit, O’Grady said, he could feel the ground shake as one massive tree after another crashed to the ground. “The ground was basically bouncing.”

The 150-year-old trees are what remains of a massive white pine forest planted after the 1870 fire that destroyed Bells Corners and area. Developer Robert Campeau built Arlington Woods around the iconic trees. Many of them were more than 100 feet tall.

Mayoral candidate Clive Doucet, who attended the outdoor service, said he was pushing to have Arlington Woods declared a heritage forest so the community would be recognized as unique and be preserved.

“I have always thought Arlington Woods was absolutely unique in the city and was probably Robert Campeau’s masterpiece. It was like being in a cathedral,” Doucet said.

“It is a tragedy for the people here, but it is also a tragedy for the city. Those white pines were 150 years old, they were irreplaceable. We won’t see it again in our lifetime.”

Several people said they believed the trees, which took the brunt of the storm, protected the houses from more damage and might have saved lives. No houses were flattened in Arlington Woods or the Craig Henry neighbourhood across Greenbank Road, as other homes were in Dunrobin.

At least one resident expressed frustration that the neighbourhood had become a magnet for gawkers. Nick McGregor put up a sign asking people who “do not live in this community or are not helping with recovery efforts” to stay out. “It is dangerous and extra people make it more dangerous.”

Ottawa Hydro said Sunday afternoon that power should be restored in the neighbourhood by Monday evening.