‘IT’S DEVASTATING’
Tornado strikes capital region
Dunrobin suffers direct hit by tornado as storm lashes Ottawa and Gatineau, smashing buildings, terrifying residents and wreaking havoc on the roads. The Citizen team mobilized to cover the event: Blair Crawford, Kelly Egan, Tom Spears, David Reevely, Joanne Laucius, Taylor Blewett, Matt Day, James Bagnall and Wayne Cuddington.
A tornado cut a swath of destruction across west end Ottawa and Gatineau Friday, flattening homes and businesses, overturning vehicles and leaving at least one person with life-threatening injuries and seriously injuring several more.
Environment Canada meteorologist Peter Kimball said photos of the damage indicate the tornado will probably rank as an EF2 on the Enhanced Fujita scale, which rates tornado intensity on a scale of 1 to 5. An EF2 has winds or of between 138-177 km/ h.
A second severe storm crossed the southern part of the city about 90 minutes later and caused more damage, but was likely not “tornadic,” Kimball said.
The twister made a direct hit on Dunrobin, destroying several homes and damaging about 60 other buildings in the small community in Ottawa’s west end.
Jessica Woods, 28, and her husband Jordan, 29, escaped the complete destruction of their home on Porcupine Trail by hiding in their basement with their two sons, ages four and one.
“We saw wind and I said, ‘There’s a tornado happening,’” Jessica said as she stood on the side of Dunrobin Road, baby in her arms, taking in the destruction. “We just went down the stairs. My husband grabbed our son. It was just so scary. I thought we were going to die.”
When they came out, their single-storey house had been levelled.
Kingston paramedic Megan Wall was driving to Dunrobin to visit friends when her car was buffeted by “absolutely insane winds.”
“The sky was black. I was driving up and you could see the wind swirl in a pattern, then you saw trees breaking.”
Walls said she could see a “massive” tornado, then her car was pummelled by flying branches. “I was just thinking that everyone should just hunker down in their cars. Then trees started to get uprooted. It didn’t last long — maybe five minutes — and it was gone.”
Elizabeth Sears was driving on the Thomas Dolan Parkway when the winds forced her to pull to the side of the road.
“All of a sudden the car got pushed forward, then it spun around in a circle and was facing the other way,” she said. “All the windows got smashed out so there was glass everywhere. I couldn’t see anything. There was just water and glass everywhere. And I thought, there’s a tornado going on and I’m right here in the middle of it. How did that happen?”
Police and firefighters went door-to-door checking on residents. West Carleton Secondary School was opened up as an emergency shelter for those displaced.
“Obviously, for a small community, it’s pretty devastating,” said Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson, who visited Dunrobin Friday night.
“Thank God, at this point, there are no fatalities,” said Watson, who saw video of the devastation taken from a drone sent overhead by the fire department. “It looks like a massive bomb explosion, covering a wide area. … It’s a very tense situation for people living here.”
From Dunrobin, the tornado tracked eastward across the Ottawa River and into Gatineau, where it caused extensive damage.
City officials opened a disaster centre at the CEGEP GabrielleRoy at Cité-des-Jeunes and Boulevard Mont Bleu, one of the hardest hit areas of the city. Busload after busload arrived their Friday evening.
As many as 600 Gatineau residents are believed to have been displaced by the storm.
Photos and video uploaded to social media showed roofs ripped from buildings, smashed windows and roads littered with debris. Brick and cinder block walls collapsed on some structures and loads of two-by-four lumber had been scattered like matchsticks.
Hydro Ottawa said 147,000 customers were without power Friday night due to downed lines and lightning strikes.
“There is significant damage to the grid and all crews are out assessing damage and will establish a priority restoration,” Hydro Ottawa said in a tweet.
The storm toppled and snapped hydro poles along Greenbank Road. There was no word when power would be restored. Ottawa police said roads were closed throughout the city — “too many to list” — and urged people to stay home if possible.
Environment Canada issued a tornado warning for the region at about 5 p.m. after seeing radar images of the storm in Calabogie that showed the cell had started to rotate, Kimball said.
The twister hit Dunrobin shortly after 5 p.m.
Jim Bowen owns the Heart and Soul Café, and beside it the Heart of the Valley Gift Shop, which is a yurt 10 metres in diameter. The gift shop is flattened. The café is showing no obvious damage, but a huge black walnut is leaning against its roof.
Bowen was across the street at a storage depot and saw clouds coming. “It looked like a microburst. I went out to my car and there were pieces of trees, logs, flying at my car. I’ve never ever seen a weather event like this here before.”
There are 13 employees between the two businesses and they will have to close for a few days. He estimates damage in the hundreds of thousands because of the merchandise and antiques lost.
Reporter Kelly Egan, at the scene, said he could see two houses completely destroyed and heavy damage to the Dunrobin Meat Market and its mall. He said there are hundreds of trees down.
Beyond power outages that blanketed downtown Ottawa, the capital’s core escaped mainly unscathed. With traffic lights not working, four-way intersections were log-jammed, causing snaking lines of vehicles along busy corridors such as Bronson Avenue and Somerset Street.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted a message of support in the tornado’s aftermath.
“To everyone dealing with the aftermath of the tornado in Dunrobin, ON & the Ottawa- Gatineau area — stay safe, follow the instructions of first responders and check in with people who might need extra help,” Trudeau tweeted. “We’re monitoring the situation and thinking of everyone affected.”
Storm chaser Tom Smetana had been following the storm front first on radar and then on the road as it came east from White Lake to Galetta and on toward Dunrobin. He has been doing this for five years, largely in the United States.
The heavy rain made it hard to see the weather front directly, so Smetana had to rely on radar. “When it got to Dunrobin that’s where it had the signature of a tornado,” he said.
The weather was “very dark, very windy. It was like a bowl shape with rain wrapped around the outside of the tornado.
“My brother lives in Dunrobin so I headed there. When I got there I found one house that had been just destroyed: Roof torn off, walls knocked out. There was a lady inside and I helped her to get out. Her name was Kim. She was pretty distraught but I told her: At least you’re alive.”
Ben Rousseau, his wife Jess and their two children live in a two-storey, three-bedroom house built in 2003. They have lived here since 2011 and recently put the house up for sale. Ben Rousseau was coming home about 5:15 for a real estate showing.
“I came around the corner and I thought: “No way! This is just unbelievable. The place is just flattened.”
He pointed at the rubble and said: “That’s the second floor on the driveway and that’s our daughter’s bed on the lawn. I almost threw up when I saw the damage.”
There was just water and glass everywhere . ... There’s a tornado going on and I’m right here in the middle of it. How did that happen?