Ford to visit Barrie after EF-2 tornado with 210 km/hr winds rips through city; 11 people hospitalized

Premier Doug Ford is heading to Barrie today to assess the damage from a tornado that ripped through part of the city leaving eleven people injured and dozens of homes damaged.

Ford will meet with Barrie Mayor Jeff Lehman this morning at an evacuation centre before going to the impacted neighbourhood.

Environment Canada has confirmed that a powerful EF-2 tornado touched down in the southern part of the city producing winds of up to 210 kilometres per hour on Thursday afternoon.

At around 2:40 p.m., a tornado touched down in the southern part of the city, tracking from the miniature golf course on Huronia Road and Mapleview Drive and continuing east towards Prince William Way.

Officials described the storm’s destruction as “catastrophic” and not unlike what you might encounter in a “war zone.”

The tornado left many homes severely damaged, uprooted trees, caused at least one car to flip over and left thousands of homes and businesses without power.

Mayor Lehman said 11 people were transported to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries and that everyone has been accounted for.

“Fortunately, incredibly, no life-threatening injuries. We had a door to door search and a secondary search last night, we believe everyone has been accounted for and that is truly the astonishing thing when you see these vehicles turned upside down and homes that came down pancaked or destroyed, that nobody lost their life here is nothing short of incredible,” he said.

Barrie Fire Chief Cory Mainprize said on Thursday that roughly 20 to 25 structures suffered significant damage, making them uninhabitable. Of those, three were completely destroyed.

Lehman said police are helping impacted residents go through their homes to collect items.

“Some [homes] are not going to be able to be restored, there are some that are destroyed or others that likely won’t won’t be repairable. But for many whose homes were heavily damaged the police are now scoring those residents in to try and help them get into get what they need,” he said.

As of 7 a.m. Friday morning, Alectra said roughly 398 homes and businesses were still without power in The Prince William Way and Mapleview Dr. East area.

Jack Beaver’s home was significantly impacted by the tornado which tore part of his roof off and destroyed his backyard.

He told CP24 Friday morning that he was sitting in his garage when he realized the tornado was coming his way.

“We’ve seen a bunch of garbage cans spinning around, it was coming closer so we went in. I went upstairs to get my wife out of bed and grandson. By the time we got down it was gone, the roof right off the garage,” he said.

Beaver said he slept in his car overnight to keep an eye on his home and that he’s still shaken by what happened.

“[I’m] just sad. I don’t know. There’s nothing you can do about it.”

“It’s like a war zone out in the back there,” he added.

An evacuation centre has been opened at Saint Gabriel the Archangel Catholic School. It is unknown how many people were displaced by the tornado.

Environment Canada first issued a tornado warning for all of Central Ontario two minutes before the tornado hit on Thursday, warning residents in Innisfil, New Tecumseth, Angus, Orillia, Lagoon City, Washago, Barrie, Collingwood and Hillsdale to “take cover immediately” if threatening weather approaches.

The national weather agency sent out a team to Barrie Thursday afternoon to confirm if the storm was in fact a tornado.

Early Friday morning, Environment Canada released the results from a damage survey that confirmed the city was hit by an EF-2 tornado with a path of destruction of about 5 kilometres long and up to 100 metres wide.

The Enhanced Fujita scale is used to rate the intensity of tornadoes. EF-5 is the highest level with tornadoes that produce wind speeds of more than 315 kilometres per hour.

Thursday’s storm was reminiscent of the tornado that hit Barrie 36 years ago, Lehman said. The 1985 EF-4 tornado killed eight people from Barrie and destroyed 600 homes.

CP24 Meteorologist Bill Coulter said Thursday’s tornado wasn’t as strong as the one 36 years ago but still significantly powerful.

“They had winds clocked from what I’ve read at 415 kilometres per hour, so almost double what they saw here yesterday,” Coulter said.

“There was a hundred million dollars in damage at that point, 800 people were left homeless and now that’s not to say yesterday’s tornado wasn’t incredibly significant. You don’t often see EF-2s,” he added.

Toronto Mayor John Tory spoke to CP24 Friday morning and said the tornado is “devastating” and that he offered the city’s support to Barrie.

“I reached out to Mayor Jeff Lehman last night who’s a very solid guy and they’re lucky to have somebody as solid as him there to sort of deal with the aftermath there and offered Toronto’s help. I said anything we could send up, anything we can do.”

People who want to donate to the victims can contact the city at (705) 746-4242 or the Red Cross.

CP24.com will broadcast Ford’s visit to Barrie live at 11:30 a.m.

With files from CP24’s Bryann Aguilar and Chris Fox.