Living Through the Tornado
Life has a habit of surprising you in ways you can't imagine.
My intention for this blog was to highlight some of the amazing people of our city. I started making a list of those I wanted to write about, do some interviews and capture the heart of what makes Ottawa home and that is its people.
Little did I know that soon after I registered the blog and got it up and running, we'd be hit by a tornado. Our home and my office. That turned our world upside down, literally.
The Ottawa region was hit by 6 tornadoes. It was late afternoon / dinner time when it was still light out and people could respond to the warnings. Because of that and pure luck, no one was killed!
I finished work that day around 4:00 pm. I joked with a client that there was a tornado watch in the area....joked because we didn't get tornadoes in Ottawa.
20 minutes later the power went off and the clouds darkened. My mobile phone startled me with a tornado warning scrolling across the screen so I immediately went to the basement. I sat and sat and sat and there was nothing. I checked back on my phone and the warning turned back to a watch so I went back upstairs to wait for my husband to come home from work.
We were going to go out to our favourite Chinese Food restaurant New Hong Shing, so I wasn't cooking dinner. It didn't register that if we had no power, they probably wouldn't either. It was a Friday so, with a weekend ahead, I set up my paints and the bowl I was going to paint on one end of the kitchen table.
I heard what sounded like a dump truck or large machine going down the street, so I went to the front door to see what was going on. I saw a tornado approaching...a wall of wind and debris which sounded like a train coming. I slammed and locked the door and ran to the basement. Within seconds I heard smashing glass, our huge pines pounding the house, saw pieces of trees landing in the window wells outside the windows on the other side of the room and in less than a minute, nothing.
Total silence.
White stuff floated down the stairs.
I gingerly made my way up the stairs. More white stuff. The stairs going up were covered in it. I didn't open the front door. I went up the stairs to see if I had a roof. The trap door to the attic was out. A pile of insulation was pooled under it. A bedroom door was shut. I opened it and saw debris and smashed glass and quickly closed it. The other bedroom, more cracked glass. The back of the house in the bathroom, cracks in the ceiling. I quickly grabbed my travel briefcase, important papers, passport etc. grabbed a travel bag and stuffed it with random clothes and ran back down the stairs. I left my stuff by the front door, opened the door and witnessed hell. There was a a log across the front door and tree after tree down across the front lawn. Strangely enough it missed my garden and a small maple tree that started regrowing after the big one was killed in an ice storm. But the rest of our majestic trees were down.
I stepped and climbed over trunks to find my husband who was driving home at the time and stopped at the corner. Our street was cut off completely by fallen trees.
We went back into the house and packed some clothes. We knew we were going to have to leave and for a while. I called my son to see if we could come and stay with them. While he packed I went to the back of the house into the kitchen. It was raining from the ceiling.
There was a room above it, so I have no idea how the water was getting in but stepped around it. The back was a mess. Our trees were down, 100 ft. or taller, 150 year old white pines which defined the area, pulled out by the roots. The ravine trees came down on top of ours. A piece of the roof was gone, another tree was across the kitchen window, one over the laundry room precariously balanced there. That all registered in the back of my mind, because the window by the kitchen table where I would have been sitting and setting up my paints, was blown in and across the room. Glass was everywhere! I could have been badly hurt, but wasn't.
We didn't know that an hour earlier, another tornado had hit Dunrobin, a community about 30 km away and flattened many homes and businesses. But in what felt like a blink we had first-responders there checking on us, house by house, making sure we were OK and evacuating a good part of Arlington Woods.
By this time the sun went down, and the only thing illuminating the area was the flashing lights of the firetrucks and police cars. We stood by the car watching, waiting to make sure our neighbours were OK. The road was closed off so we couldn't go anywhere just yet. We had to wait for some of the firetrucks to move out of the way. In the meantime I called our next door neighbours who were away in Montreal for a meeting to let them know their house was hit by a tornado. Their house sitter couldn't get to the house and we were determined not to leave the street until we were able to get their dog Buddy out and make sure he was OK. We had a key to their house so 2 policemen escorted my husband into the house to find him. Thankfully he was OK. He was in his crate. The ceiling was damaged as was the roof above him. Water was dripping on his head and he was lying in a puddle, but he was safe. All 100 lbs. of him!
He was leashed and we put him in the car so he was away from glass and debris. I couldn't stop hugging him. We arranged to meet his owners at my son and daughter-in-law's. They left from Montreal and it took us almost the same amount of time for them to drive the 2 hours as for us to to get to their condo. A good part of the city's power was out. No traffic lights or street lights. Wall to wall traffic. People trying to get to safety, get home, go to where there might be electricity.
For the next 10 days or so, first responders would be in the neighbourhood along with city workers to keep us safe, secure and make sure the roads were cleared so the city could start cleanup.
My next few blogs are going to be about them. Extraordinary doesn't begin to describe them but I'll do my best trying.
More to come.
...
My intention for this blog was to highlight some of the amazing people of our city. I started making a list of those I wanted to write about, do some interviews and capture the heart of what makes Ottawa home and that is its people.
Little did I know that soon after I registered the blog and got it up and running, we'd be hit by a tornado. Our home and my office. That turned our world upside down, literally.
The Ottawa region was hit by 6 tornadoes. It was late afternoon / dinner time when it was still light out and people could respond to the warnings. Because of that and pure luck, no one was killed!
I finished work that day around 4:00 pm. I joked with a client that there was a tornado watch in the area....joked because we didn't get tornadoes in Ottawa.
20 minutes later the power went off and the clouds darkened. My mobile phone startled me with a tornado warning scrolling across the screen so I immediately went to the basement. I sat and sat and sat and there was nothing. I checked back on my phone and the warning turned back to a watch so I went back upstairs to wait for my husband to come home from work.
We were going to go out to our favourite Chinese Food restaurant New Hong Shing, so I wasn't cooking dinner. It didn't register that if we had no power, they probably wouldn't either. It was a Friday so, with a weekend ahead, I set up my paints and the bowl I was going to paint on one end of the kitchen table.
I heard what sounded like a dump truck or large machine going down the street, so I went to the front door to see what was going on. I saw a tornado approaching...a wall of wind and debris which sounded like a train coming. I slammed and locked the door and ran to the basement. Within seconds I heard smashing glass, our huge pines pounding the house, saw pieces of trees landing in the window wells outside the windows on the other side of the room and in less than a minute, nothing.
Total silence.
White stuff floated down the stairs.
I gingerly made my way up the stairs. More white stuff. The stairs going up were covered in it. I didn't open the front door. I went up the stairs to see if I had a roof. The trap door to the attic was out. A pile of insulation was pooled under it. A bedroom door was shut. I opened it and saw debris and smashed glass and quickly closed it. The other bedroom, more cracked glass. The back of the house in the bathroom, cracks in the ceiling. I quickly grabbed my travel briefcase, important papers, passport etc. grabbed a travel bag and stuffed it with random clothes and ran back down the stairs. I left my stuff by the front door, opened the door and witnessed hell. There was a a log across the front door and tree after tree down across the front lawn. Strangely enough it missed my garden and a small maple tree that started regrowing after the big one was killed in an ice storm. But the rest of our majestic trees were down.
I stepped and climbed over trunks to find my husband who was driving home at the time and stopped at the corner. Our street was cut off completely by fallen trees.
We went back into the house and packed some clothes. We knew we were going to have to leave and for a while. I called my son to see if we could come and stay with them. While he packed I went to the back of the house into the kitchen. It was raining from the ceiling.
There was a room above it, so I have no idea how the water was getting in but stepped around it. The back was a mess. Our trees were down, 100 ft. or taller, 150 year old white pines which defined the area, pulled out by the roots. The ravine trees came down on top of ours. A piece of the roof was gone, another tree was across the kitchen window, one over the laundry room precariously balanced there. That all registered in the back of my mind, because the window by the kitchen table where I would have been sitting and setting up my paints, was blown in and across the room. Glass was everywhere! I could have been badly hurt, but wasn't.
We didn't know that an hour earlier, another tornado had hit Dunrobin, a community about 30 km away and flattened many homes and businesses. But in what felt like a blink we had first-responders there checking on us, house by house, making sure we were OK and evacuating a good part of Arlington Woods.
By this time the sun went down, and the only thing illuminating the area was the flashing lights of the firetrucks and police cars. We stood by the car watching, waiting to make sure our neighbours were OK. The road was closed off so we couldn't go anywhere just yet. We had to wait for some of the firetrucks to move out of the way. In the meantime I called our next door neighbours who were away in Montreal for a meeting to let them know their house was hit by a tornado. Their house sitter couldn't get to the house and we were determined not to leave the street until we were able to get their dog Buddy out and make sure he was OK. We had a key to their house so 2 policemen escorted my husband into the house to find him. Thankfully he was OK. He was in his crate. The ceiling was damaged as was the roof above him. Water was dripping on his head and he was lying in a puddle, but he was safe. All 100 lbs. of him!
He was leashed and we put him in the car so he was away from glass and debris. I couldn't stop hugging him. We arranged to meet his owners at my son and daughter-in-law's. They left from Montreal and it took us almost the same amount of time for them to drive the 2 hours as for us to to get to their condo. A good part of the city's power was out. No traffic lights or street lights. Wall to wall traffic. People trying to get to safety, get home, go to where there might be electricity.
For the next 10 days or so, first responders would be in the neighbourhood along with city workers to keep us safe, secure and make sure the roads were cleared so the city could start cleanup.
My next few blogs are going to be about them. Extraordinary doesn't begin to describe them but I'll do my best trying.
More to come.
Comments
Post a Comment