MIDLAND, Ont. – Roughly 8,200 homes in the Midland region were without power Thursday morning, after a tornado ripped through the central Ontario community the night before, injuring residents and damaging homes.
Although initial reports were uncertain about the nature of the wind storm, Environment Canada confirmed Thursday that it was a tornado that touched down.
"Based on the eyewitness accounts … and the pictures we’ve seen, we are confirming it was tornado in Midland," said meteorologist Geoff Coulson. "At this point we don’t know the details about … intensity."
Two damage survey teams are on their way to Midland and the surrounding to assess the impact of the storm, he said.
The extent of the damage, and its impact on cars, homes and trees, will help them determine the size and strength of the tornado, he said.
Hydro One crews are in Midland trying to restore power to thousands of customers, said spokeswoman Daniele Gauvin.
Such an extensive outage requires the work of ground and helicopter crews, she said, who hope to have the power back on by the late afternoon.
About a dozen people were injured after the tornado hit.
Most of the injuries were reported at a local trailer park, but residents reported the huge funnel cloud, as much as 80 metres wide, also snapped a transformer and tore the roof off a factory.
Alisdair MacLean, the business manager of Midland Toyota on the town’s main thoroughfare, King Street, witnessed the storm.
"If you saw the movie Twister, that’s pretty much what happened," he said.
"I looked out and there was this huge vortex going through the neighbourhood with debris going around it. We decided it would be good to step away from the plate glass windows, and that’s when it started," MacLean said.
"You could see the funnel effect of the wind in the parking lot. Stuff was circling around in a circular direction, but we were on the edge of it. Literally 200 yards away the devastation was incredible."
MacLean said he saw a transformer "snapped in half" near his dealership.
"I’m pretty sure if you flew across now, you’d see a pretty large swath across Simcoe County."
Midland Mayor James Downer, said early Thursday morning he is confident that the town escaped without any fatalities.
"As long and exhausting as the day has been, I think we managed to get out of this without anybody being killed," he said.
Downer said the town was hit hard, but emergency crews are working to fix gas leaks and to get power back online.
Barbara Beaman, a Midland resident for more than 25 years, was shocked at the damage she saw on a drive home from Barrie.
"An old factory had lost its roof. All the traffic lights are out. Hydro lines are snapped. They’ve got King Street (where the trailer park is located) closed down."
The storm eventually moved east and tornado warnings issued for Apsley, Woodview and Northern Peterborough County were cancelled.
A tornado watch was also issued for Windsor and Essex County, Chatam-Kent and Rondeau Park Wednesday night, but that warning was cancelled as the evening progressed.
Maurice and Allison Bressette, a local Midland couple, were sitting in a restaurant at the south end of King Street. They looked out the window toward the west at about 6:15 p.m. and saw cloud coming – a wall of debris, dust, dirt, roofing, panels and plywood about 60 to 80 metres wide. It hit the car dealership across the road and damaged a number of cars.
The Bressettes were herding a couple of older people into the washroom when the wall hit the restaurant, blowing in the windows. "It went quiet for a second and then everything was flying through the air and the noise was unbelievable," Mr. Bressette said.
Bill Cameron, a chiropractor, was treating a patient, when he looked west out the window and saw a spinning vortex. "It looked very powerful," he said.
Comments
Want to discuss? Please read our Commenting Policy first.