Cleanup underway after tornado hits Ottawa's south end

Residents in Ottawa's south end will spend the weekend cleaning up and repairing homes, after a tornado ripped through the area, damaging homes, properties and trees.

It's the third tornado to touch down in the southern part of the national capital so far this summer.

"My wife was upstairs at the time with our son and heard a freight train, is what she described it as," Michael Simonot said Friday. "The wind basically rushing through our attic."

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Twelves homes in Findlay Creek and Barrhaven were damaged during the storm, mostly with damage to roofs, fences and sheds. Simonot's home was one of the structures left with a hole in the roof.

Environment Canada confirms a tornado touched down in the Findlay Creek neighbourhood before just 7 p.m. Thursday. Storm chaser Connor Mockett posted video on social media of what he said was a tornado on Albion Road near Rideau Road at 6:47 p.m.

"A lot of wind, a lot of pummel and it happened within seconds," Frank Scopelliti said Thursday evening as he cleaned up debris. The storm ripped shingles off his home.

"It was unbelievable; one minute you're OK, one minute you're not. It was like a wind tunnel going 100 miles an hour. Everything flew over the fence; it was absolutely nuts."

There have been reports of damage in the south end from Bank Street in Findlay Creek to River Road near Earl Armstrong Road. Photos on social media showed damage to homes, downed trees and a trailer flipped over at a construction site.  Coun. Steve Desroches, the councillor for the area, said roof damage was reported on Escapade Private, Salamander Way, Findlay Creek Drive and Labrador Crescent.

The storm sent Ashley Russell's backyard trampoline flying through the neighbourhood.

"Our fence was down, our trampoline was down a block in the neighbour's yard, our neighbour's roof was in our pool," Russell said.

Ashley Russell's trampoline flies through a neighbour's backyard as a severe storm hit Findlay Creek on Thursday. (Submitted video)

Desroches told Newstalk 580 CFRA's Ottawa at Work with Patricia Boal that most of the damage is located in Findlay Creek, near Bank Street.

"Some of the homes have been damaged," Desroches said. "You can see that the storm blew a lot of debris and insulation onto people's houses and that; so they're cleaning up."

 

Environment Canada says a tornado touched down in Findlay Creek on Thursday, damaging homes and properties. (Jim O'Grady/CTV News Ottawa)

On Kelly Farm Drive, roof shingles, street signs, a porta potty and other debris littered the street.

Ottawa fire says the roof was partially ripped off a home on Canyon Walk Drive in Riverside South.

Joanne Robinson saw the storm coming and took cover in the basement of her home on Canyon Walk Drive.

"Once it calmed down, we came back upstairs and came outside; my husband notices the big hole in the house across from us," Robinson said.

No injuries have been reported. 

@ctvnewsottawa Environment Canada says a tornado touched down northwest of Metcalfe Thursday evening. Viewer Robert Woznow sent us video of the storm in the Findlay Creek area. #ottnews #ottawa #fyp #ottawastorm #ottawatornado ♬ original sound - ctvnewsottawa

Desroches says city staff are working to address any damage to city infrastructure in Riverside South and Findlay Creek.

Falcon Ridge Golf Club on Albion Road estimates it lost 40 to 50 trees. The full 18-hole course was closed this morning due to the cleanup.

A photo posted on the club's Instagram page shows tree damage along the 18^th fairway.

"We got a good crew in, our own guys with chainsaws and leaf blowers and everything else and a lot of people picking up pieces of wood," Steve Spratt, co-owner of Falcon Ridge, said Friday.

"We started at 6 this morning and we were done at noon."

 

 

 

 

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Western University's Northern Tornadoes Project will travel to Ottawa today to investigate the damage.

Environment Canada says a funnel cloud was reported in the Kinburn area around 5:30 p.m.

On July 13, two EF1 tornadoes with maximum wind speeds of 155 km/h touched down in Barrhaven, damaging more than 100 homes and properties. The Northern Tornadoes Project said the tornadoes left two paths of damage approximately 1 km and 5 km long.

With files from CTV News Ottawa's Katie Griffin and Peter Szperling