Several people injured, ‘catastrophic’ damage after tornado hits Barrie

“I can’t tell you how incredible it is that nobody has been killed, and I hope that as all the secondary searches are completed and the patients are treated in the hospital, that that continues to be the case,” he said.

“Because this certainly could have been a much more serious disaster.”

Fire officials said up to 25 buildings suffered significant damage, with two or three “completely destroyed.”

Earlier Thursday, police spokesman Peter Leon said the tornado had also damaged gas lines and caused power outages.

“The damage is catastrophic, it is significant, it is major,” Leon said.

“It looks very symbolic, unfortunately, of a war zone in some places.”

Meanwhile, people shared photos and videos of the destruction in the aftermath of the tornado, showing homes with their roofs partially torn off, overturned vehicles and debris littering the streets in parts of the city north of Toronto.

“Oh my god, a tornado just hit our house,” a person exclaims in one video that shows knocked-down picture frames, broken items and scattered debris inside a home.

“The roof is gone,” the person adds before going outside, where large pieces of pink building insulation, wood and other materials are spread out on the street. What appears to be appliances can also be seen next to the home.

Geoff Coulson, a warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment Canada, said those images and videos have helped confirm the storm was indeed a tornado.

The tornado touched down around 2:30 p.m. just minutes after Environment Canada upgraded its tornado watch for the area to a warning, he said.

“We don’t have a sense of the damage path, the length or width of the path” that the tornado took when it touched down in Barrie, he said, but the agency is sending a team to investigate, as is the Northern Tornadoes Project at Western University.

The storm also touched down in Keswick, Ont., but whether that was also a tornado remains to be determined, he said.

The tornado warning for Barrie was lifted shortly before 3 p.m. as the storm moved east, but one is now in place for the Peterborough and Kawartha Lakes area.

“It looks like, as it’s moving further east, it will start to weaken somewhat, but it is still going to be a very dangerous storm for the next little while,” Coulson said.

“It is also important to remind folks that it does continue to be an ongoing situation, (thunderstorm) watches continue to be in effect for much of southern and eastern Ontario, and there is still a potential for damaging storms to occur through the late afternoon and evening hours in parts of the province.”

Premier Doug Ford was among those who offered up their sympathies to the affected residents.

“My thoughts are with everyone in #Barrie and #Innisfil affected by the severe weather today. A big thank you to our first responders that are currently on the ground helping the situation. Please stay safe everyone!,” Ford said on Twitter.

Barrie was also hit by a devastating tornado in 1985, an F4-strength storm that killed eight people and destroyed hundreds of homes.

_ With files from Paola Loriggio in Toronto.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on July 15, 2021.

Nicole Thompson, The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

Several people injured, ‘catastrophic’ damage after tornado hits Barrie

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