SMF

The past 24 hours have been quite interesting here in Ottawa. While we had to travel to Montreal for the day, I dreaded the drive home knowing we were potentially driving straight into the teeth of something very ugly and very unpredictable. Luckily for all our family in the area, none of us were in the line of storms. High winds did not bring any damage to our homes.

Many friend, however, in the west end of the area (Dunrobin, Ontario) have suffered great loss. One family have sustained significant damage to their home and are still not being allowed to enter into the affected zone to secure their home.

It's a mess to the west and south of the city -- and I am grateful we didn't get hit at all.

Thanks for the reporting, Wendell.

My best to all those in Ontario who have suffered damages and loss from extreme weather.

- Murray

We are glad to know all is well with you. However it is but for the grace of God in natural disasters

Glad to hear that all is well with you and your family, Wendell. Must be a very frightening to experience a tornado. Do you have power? Our friends are in Ottawa this weekend for the Army Run; fortunately they were out of the tornados’ path, but they are in darkness.

Very distressing to learn of the harm that is caused by such natural disasters.

We have full services. Our end of town was missed entirely. Safety services have requested that everyone stay off the roads tomorrow to lighten the load on the infrastructure. Those without power who are reliant on the main station that went down in the south-west end, will be at least a week without power, and for the power station to be rebuilt or replaced will take much, much longer than that.

The reports are that this has had a greater impact on the city of Ottawa than the ice storm of 1998. The city itself was relatively unscathed, but the outlying areas were devastated. This time around it was localized because of the nature of tornado weather.

Wendell, you’re very fortunate. From the news it looks pretty devastating. I just realised that the second tornado went through Arlington Woods, which is where we lived before moving to Hog Town. From the satellite imagery I’ve seen, it looks as though our old house was not damaged. I lived in Houston for 10 years and one expects very severe weather in the form of tropical storms, hurricanes and tornados. In that time, however, although I experienced several tropical storms and hurricanes, only once did I have a close call with a tornado: dark green sky, heavy rain, but the funnel cloud veered away from The Woodlands where I lived. I never thought that the NCR would be in the path of a tornado, let alone 2; is this a taste of things to come? I see that Calabogie and Charbot Lake experienced violent rainstorms as well.

It is now reported that 6 tornadoes touched down in fact!

Rufus wrote: ↑Wed Sep 26, 2018 3:37 am It is now reported that 6 tornadoes touched down in fact!

3 were in the Gatineau hills in what was termed "wooded areas" which is code for nowhere near housing or hydro. And everyone is glad for that -- another 3 in populated or industrial areas could have been beyond catastrophic.

Monday volunteers were being marshalled and allowed into the zone in Dunrobin to help homeowners clean up. The Arlington Woods area was still not open for volunteer clean up crews yesterday - which was when I last checked.

Beyond believe the devastation caused by a twister. And the amazing thing is how narrow the path of destruction is with these things.