PICKING UP THE PIECES
Hundreds have been left homeless in the communities of Dunrobin, Ont. and Gatineau, Que. after two tornadoes ripped through the Ottawa region on Friday
OTTAWA — People were picking up the pieces Sunday along the path taken by two devastating tornadoes that ripped homes to shreds, downed power lines and left thousands in blackout darkness across this region.
City officials, meanwhile, were pleading with people to stay home as the cleanup continues, while all schools in the Catholic and public boards were cancelled Monday.
“With the (Monday) rush hour coming and more than 400 traffic signals without power, it could cause major traffic disruptions, so we are asking people, if they can, please stay home,” said Anthony Di Monte, Ottawa’s general manager of emergency and protective services, who called for “patience and courtesy” from those who do venture out on the roads in the aftermath of the historic storm.
Amid the wreckage and recovery efforts, harrowing stories of survival, and heart-warming tales of good will, were both emerging.
Families had huddled in their basements and held their children close as the first twister touched down in rural Kinburn, striking a direct hit on suburban Dunrobin just before 5 p.m. Friday, the last day of summer.
The tornado tore apart homes, uprooted trees and flattened barns, skipping across the Ottawa River and through Gatineau Park before wreaking more havoc in the Mont Bleu neighbourhood of Gatineau.
Another powerful tornado blew through the region about 90 minutes later. There were no fatalities and no reports of missing people, but several were hospitalized with injuries, including two admitted to The Ottawa Hospital in critical condition. In Gatineau, 14 people were taken to hospital.
With gale-force intensity — ranked as an E/F3 tornado on the zero to five Enhanced Fujita scale by Environment Canada, with wind velocity reaching up to 260 km/h — the tornado raged through the area, toppling buildings, ripping off roofs and smashing windows as streets were left littered with glass, bricks, cinder blocks and scattered lumber.
It was the first E/F3 tornado recorded in September in Canada since a twister in the Niagara region in 1898, Environment Canada officials said. The breadth of power outages quickly drew comparisons to the 1988 ice storm.
“It was a big tornado and very intense,” said meteorologist Peter Kimbell, who visited the devastated area.
The massive twister cut a swath one kilometre wide, travelling at least 40 kilometres before it finally lifted east of Autoroute 5 in Gatineau.
Many saw the storm’s violence from up close as numerous videos emerged on social media showing a black sky swirling with shingles, siding and other debris.
As many as 600 people were displaced from their homes in Gatineau, with families arriving by the busload to disaster centres, including the CEGEP de l’Outaouais on Cite-des-Jeunes in one of the areas hardest hit.
Some were told it could be days before they could return home.
More than 800 people in Western Quebec had already registered for assistance related to the storm.
Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard surveyed the damage in a tour of the region Saturday, while Premier Doug Ford visited the Ontario side Sunday. Both offered provincial assistance, while Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke with Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson and Gatineau Mayor Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin to offer the federal government’s assistance to those in need.
Aid agencies worked tirelessly through the weekend on both sides of the river, where several families hit by the tornado said they were still reeling from the historic flooding that had hit some of the same areas just over a year ago.
The second tornado touched down near Highway 416 and tracked eastward across the Arlington Woods, Greenbank and Craig Henry neighbourhoods, leaving downed poles and live wires in its wake as winds demolished a key Hydro One transmission station on Merivale Road.
That tornado was likely a “high E/F2” with wind speeds of 220-230 km/h, Kimbell said.
Watson said at a Sunday briefing that 51 homes in Ottawa were “decimated” or left in need of massive structural repair.
Hydro crews faced a daunting task. A key substation suffered a direct hit, toppling towers and snapping poles and power lines, plunging thousands of homes into darkness in the west and south ends of the city.
Sunday began with about 80,000 homes still without power, and officials with Hydro Ottawa and Hydro One warned it could be several days before all the lights came back on. Officials pleaded with those whose power had been restored to conserve energy while crews diverted electricity to other pockets of the city.
Residents in some of the hardest-hit areas warned against “gawkers” snapping photos or to take in the damage. City officials asked people to stay away. The Insurance Bureau of Canada said it expects damage claims to be valued in the tens of millions.
“I’ve been doing damage surveys for roughly 20 years and this was one of the more complicated (weather) events, with multiple strong tornadoes and pockets of straight-line wind damage/ downbursts,” said David Sills, an Environment Canada severe weather specialist.
— With files from Blair Crawford, Liz Payne, Shaamini Yogaretnam
OTTAWA — A tornado struck their house, and a terrible thing it was. But nothing like the hurricane that has swept their lives.
Nicole Lowden, an Ottawa paramedic, is outside the crisis centre at West Carleton Secondary School on Sunday, finally eating something days of retrieving items scattered to the winds in Friday’s catastrophic tornado in Dunrobin.
“Let me show you something.”
She pulls out her cellphone camera to illustrate how the storm blew her daughter’s bedroom right out of the house, and mostly knocked her son’s room to bits, the ceiling replaced by sky.
“I guarantee you, I can say this without a doubt, my husband saved my life and my son’s life.”
And that is but the half of it. Lowden, her husband Brian, and their three children survived the floods at nearby Constance Bay in the spring of 2017, barely keeping the surging Ottawa River from entering the waterfront home.
If not for shoulder-high sandbags and non-stop pumping, their home of 20 years might have been overwhelmed.
But, inside, it stayed dry. “We didn’t get water inside the house, but at one point we were completely surrounded.”
After the floods, they sold their home, and just weeks before it sold, their daughter, now 22, was diagnosed with Stage 2 lymphoma.
She has now undergone eight of 12 scheduled chemo treatments and Nicole says the prognosis is good.
Had it been any other day, their daughter, who was at a friend’s place, might have been recuperating in her room that Friday during a storm that was strong enough to pick up cars and tear houses in half.
She lost all her possessions. Floods, cancer, tornado. What next?
“I try to be positive, but it’s getting harder and harder. I really feel like we’re being tested. I’m a God-fearing woman but I’m confused right now.”
On Sunday, near a swamp, she found her daughter’s pyjamas, then spotted a healing quilt, made by a good friend, hanging in a tree.
Standing there, Lowden wraps her fleece a little tighter against a chilling breeze, hugs herself a little, and chokes back a little tear.
She has spent a good deal of time this weekend doing the what ifs in her mind.
On Friday afternoon, she arrived home and Daniel, her son, tired from a day of work, was asleep upstairs.
Brian, a volunteer firefighter who was doing duty at the nearby Carp Fall Fair, arrived home early because of the severe weather warning.
Just as she was shutting windows upstairs against the rain and wind, she heard a scream from downstairs. “I have never,” she said, emphasizing each word, “heard my husband yell in that manner. ‘Get down here right now.’ ”
She said Brian came upstairs, half dragged the groggy-headed Daniel down the stairs and the three of them huddled by the fridge in the kitchen, as the house had no basement. “I’m telling you, that’s the only part of the house that is untouched.”
She describes a wild scene on the main floor as Daniel scrambled to find Lola, the blind dog, a six-pound ball of fur.
Windows were breaking, splintered lumber was flying through the air, the roof was airborne. And in a couple of minutes, it was all over. Outside, a neighbour’s home was nothing but a ragged foundation.
For now, the family is trying to regroup. They were renting the house on Thomas A. Dolan Parkway while waiting for construction to finish on a new home they’ve bought in Constance Bay.
(It seems minor by comparison, but they did not have content insurance on their possessions.)
Lowden, who has slept badly all weekend, is not beyond finding humour in the calamity.
“A friend of mine was joking when she said ‘I will never live beside you.’ This is following us. I said to our builder, I feel like this is my fault.”
The residents of Dunrobin, who were escorted into their homes on Sunday to retrieve essential items and keepsakes, are a resilient lot.
Greg Patacairk is president of the Dunrobin Community Association, a volunteer position. He spent all weekend trying to support his friends and neighbours.
“This is definitely not a short-term fix here. We’re looking at weeks and months.”
He said he was “overwhelmed” with the response from firefighters and other first responders on Friday night and the outpouring of the community ever since.
“Dunrobin will bounce back and it will be rebuilt and we’ll be stronger for it,” he said. “There’s a lot of heartache, but it’s expressed in hope.”
The Lowden family, meanwhile, is now looking for rental accommodation until their new home is ready next spring.
Nicole is adamant that they all be together.
“We’re not being separated, not after all this.”