EF2 tornado rips 32km from Waterford to Jarvis in Haldimand & Norfolk counties
This long-tracked tornado developed to the south of Waterford near the intersection of Cherry Valley Road and Highway 24. It tore off branches and pushed over trees, then widened and strengthened as it whipped through the fields toward Old Highway 24. There, the young tornado inflicted perhaps its closest call as a young mother was pulling out of her driveway with her baby in the back seat. As she left her property the rain was barely starting, a light drizzle, but by the time she drove just two doors south the car was engulfed in a blinding onslaught of rain and debris. She managed to pull into her neighbour’s driveway as the tornado toppled trees and hurled a sheet metal garage up off of its foundation and onto the car. Fortunately she suffered only minor injuries, bruises to her arms, and the baby was unscathed.
From there the tornado moved quickly to the southeast as it blasted through homes and farms just south of town. It ripped through a woodlot and sent dozens of trees hurtling down at a pair of properties on Blue Line Road, then reached its maximum width as travelled along Concession 11. Trees were snapped and mangled for hundreds of metres on either side of the concession, however the most intense damage occurred to a row of homes immediately along the south side of the road. There the tornado tore apart trees as it snapped and threw them onto homes and vehicles. At a few of the properties, almost every tree came down and the houses were impaled by branches, flung like missiles. Pine boughs and branches were deposited hundreds of metres away in fields downwind of the woodlots from which they’d been snapped. In addition, the tornado tossed a camper trailer and snapped an industrial flagpole – rated to withstand winds of up to 100 mph – at its base.
Departing the strip of devastated properties along Concession 11, the tornado weakened in intensity and inflicted only sporadic damage as it moved to the southeast away from Waterford. In this area it passed mostly through fields, but did strike a few apple orchards where some trees were shorn off or pushed over. However this weak phase was brief and the tornado once again strengthened as it approached the community of Jarvis. On Highway 3 west of town, several properties suffered extensive tree damage and at one farm the tornado tore apart an 8 x 30 metre barn and scattered its debris for 100s of metres. Just up the road from there, the tornado mangled trees and ripped the front porch off of a house.
Fortunately the tornado passed south of Jarvis before taking a slight northward jog to the east of town. As it did it struck a pair of farms on Concession 6 Walpole, inflicting severe damage on the properties. At the farm on the south side of the road, a barn was levelled; at the farm on the north side, a large machine shed were torn apart and destroyed. From there the tornado wobbled once again and resumed its track to the southeast, striking a farm on Cheapside Road. Although tremendous damage also occurred at this property as trees were snapped and thrown and barn buildings blown apart, the house received only minor damage. The tornado tossed debris from the destroyed buildings more than 500 metres through fields to the southeast and south.
