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It’s a moment Danielle Miles says she’ll never forget, finding herself directly in the path of the powerful storm that ripped through Eastern Ontario on Tuesday afternoon.
“The tornado hit very suddenly,” said the Verona, Ont., resident “The tornado warning didn’t come until after it already hit; it was the scariest thing I’ve ever seen.
“The winds picked up within a minute and I’ve never seen winds and rains as hard as it came.”
When the storm passed, the full extent of the damage became clear. Massive pine trees — some more than 100 feet tall — had been snapped or uprooted across the property near Verona.
“They’re so big and I’ve never seen damage like this before,” Miles added. “And knowing that every single one of them had fallen down, and every single one has been uprooted or snapped in some capacity, my first thought was just the mess and destruction that happened.”
Despite the extensive damage, Miles says her family is grateful no one was hurt, and that the house suffered only minor damage.
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The storm’s destruction stretched well beyond Miles’ property. Just over 10 km away in Harrowsmith, the local cemetery was left littered with massive uprooted trees and extensive damage, another sign of the storm’s incredible force.
In Kingston, city crews have cleared high-priority hazards and reopened all roadways. Officials say cleanup of trees and debris is expected to continue into next week.
For now, Miles says the focus is on cleaning up and starting the insurance process.
“We’re just working through all those processes now, and we’ll see when the time comes,” Miles said. “We’ve gotten through all the processes and now it’s just a waiting game.”
Meanwhile the Northern Tornadoes Project from the Canadian Severe Storms Lab has deployed a survey team, which is expected to arrive Thursday night to investigate a path of storm damage stretching from Verona to Kingston and determine whether a tornado touched down.
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