Tornado slams Elora, rips off townhouse roofs, smashes cars
Just after 3pm this short-lived and vigorous tornado touched down just south of the Grand River in the town of Elora.
A town worker first noticed the misshapen blackish-brown funnel cloud entering the town from the west. The man saw it bounce several times before taking it seriously when he observed swirling debris within it.
Another witness described the tornado’s sound like a terrible roar similar to a jet taking off as it impacted a townhouse complex located on Guelph Road. Here it took the roofs off three of the buildings and part of a fourth, spraying insulation and lumber throughout the neighborhood. Some of the framing was launched through the air as missiles which impaled several homes.
The tornado seemed to skip along quickly through the south end of Elora appearing as a low black cloud rumbling like a large truck through the streets. In this area, 10m tall trees were uprooted crushing cars beneath, and many houses had windows blown out. Its path was only 30m wide.
On Highway 6 north of Fergus a gas station owner reportedly saw the vortex, describing it as a cloud of garbage raining debris. It is believed that between this location and Elora the tornado roped out.
