Tornado touches down in Amherstburg
News
Environment Canada says F-0 tornado hits town
Posted By Ron Giofu/The Amherstburg Echo
Posted 1 month ago
AMHERSTBURG — The storms that hit Windsor-Essex County Friday night included an F-0 tornado in Amherstburg.
Paul Roberts from Environment Canada was in town Saturday morning investigating with reports and his preliminary conclusion was that of a "weak F-0 tornado." Later in the day that the weather service confirmed that an F-0 tornado touched down, with a one kilometer stretch in the former Anderdon Township being a major site of damage.
Roberts, as well as several impacted residents, pointed out that the tornado appeared to take a diagonal path. Trees in a public park just east of Anderdon Public School were snapped and the roof of the former Anderdon police station was severely damaged. Trees at nearby homes were snapped and property damaged with trees as far away as Jellystone Park also damaged.
A tree blocked Simcoe St. for a period of time with other trees reported down on Front Road North.
Beth Huneault was with family at the Verdi Club Festival and didn't realize the severity of damage until getting a text message from 17-year-old daughter Jenna.
"We didn't think anything of it," she said.
The home saw numerous trees and yard furniture damaged with shingles being ripped from the roof. Huneault said they have seen storms hit the area over the years but "nothing to this extent." She said it was a shock to see the damage adding the family will "sadly miss all those big trees" that surrounded the property.
"Trees have been here for years have been knocked over. It kind of looks like Jurassic Park back here," said Huneault. "My property, my sister's next door and our parents behind us were all damaged."
Huneault added the inside of the home suffered damage as well after water seeped into the home when the shingles were torn off.
Tim Robinson, owner of Tim's Tree Service, was on scene Saturday morning. He knew then he would have to work well into the night at various calls within the town. Robinson estimated working to clear roughly 60-70 downed trees.
Robinson said business has been "insane" the last few weeks, dating back to the F-2 tornado that hit Leamington June 6.
"It's tough to keep up with business due to storm calls," he said.
Robinson added he has seen roofs peeled back, shingles ripped off homes and a variety of other damage.
"It's pretty wild. I feel bad for the homeowners. It's sad to see," said Robinson. "It seems weather is getting worse every year."
Lou Zarlenga, director of engineering and infrastructure, said the damage was severe at the former Anderdon police station. The town owns the building and uses it for storage.
"It's major. It looks like the top half lifted up," said Zarlenga.
Zarlenga said a "fair bit of water damage" occurred to files that had been stored in the building. Structural engineer Norm Becker was also on site as work crews made temporary repairs to try and prevent further short-term damage.
The town's insurance provider has been contacted, said Zarlenga, with further investigation to be done on where the town may proceed from here. It is possible that the damage is severe enough that repairs would cost roughly the same as the building's value, Zarlenga estimated.
Jellystone Park manager Bonnie Jackson said there were no injuries at the local campground, but there was some damage.
"We did evacuate last night. We had trees that knocked wires down," she said.
Jackson said they put safety first and evacuated people but "there were some that chose to stay."
Approximately seven trees were damaged with a power line in one section of the park knocked down. Power was restored in that part of the campground by Saturday morning.
"It's all up and running right now. It's cleaning up the mess that happened yesterday," she said Saturday afternoon.
Jackson added they were "really blessed" that no one suffered any injuries.
