Premier Doug Ford has pledged support for the residents of Dunrobin in the wake of the tornadoes that hit the Ottawa area
Premier visits Ottawa in the wake of devastating tornadoes
OTTAWA — Word of Friday’s tornado reached Laurel Wingrove and Alex Carlson at a Toronto wedding, and by Sunday morning they completed the grim pilgrimage back to the apartment they’ve called home for four months.
Almost nothing was waiting for them.
The roof was sheared off, the second storey of the edifice was gone. Shredded and twisted shards of wood and metal filled the yard, where two crushed cars were parked. A large trash dumpster was flipped on its side.
“It could have been worse if we were here. Our bedroom’s upstairs,” said Carlson, 24.
“It’s gone,” added Wingrove,
25.
Their rural Ottawa neighbourhood of Dunrobin was one of the worst hit areas as twin tornadoes tore through Ottawa and across the Ottawa River to Gatineau, Que., on Friday.
The national weather agency says a powerful twister — with winds that reached 265 km/h — ripped through Dunrobin, about 35 kilometres west of the downtown area, before moving on to Gatineau.
Environment Canada said that at almost the same time a second, slightly less powerful, twister touched down in the south Ottawa neighbourhood of Arlington Woods.
The 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.
Throughout the Canadian capital region, shaken residents began returning to some of the hardest hit areas, taking stock of what was lost and trying to figure out what remained.
For Wingrove and Carlson, some relief came quickly. A volunteer firefighter emerged with a set of file folders. Their passports were inside. Several minutes later, the firefighter handed Carlson his silver laptop computer — the one he hadn’t backed up that had valuable information about two business ventures.
“The community is going to come together. And everyone’s making sure we’re OK,” said Carlson, who is also a volunteer firefighter. On Sunday he was on crutches and wearing a cast on his left ankle — a result of onemonth-old injury that removed him from the recovery efforts.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford toured Dunrobin on Sunday and 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 promise after meeting more local residents, returning to homes that the tornadoes had in some cases levelled, in a pastoral area littered with snapped power lines and scattered branches.
“We can replace the infrastructure, and we will. We will spare no resources in the province,” Ford said, noting it was a blessing that nobody was killed.
Meeting displaced residents at a local high school, 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 before in jumped 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 were working to untangle and repair fallen power lines and restore electricity to the region.
At one point more than 200,000 hydro customers were blacked out, but as of Sunday morning, the Hydro Ottawa and Hydro Quebec websites reported the number had been reduced to fewer than 80,000.
The Ontario government announced it was activating the province’s Disaster Recovery Assistance program in affected areas, while the Quebec government announced it would give the Red Cross $1 million to help with relief efforts.