Tornado damages more than 100 homes after hitting Canadian suburb

Authorities in Ottawa say at least one tornado has hit a suburb of Canada’s capital, damaging more than 100 homes

At least one tornado hit a suburb of Canada's capital Thursday, damaging more than 100 homes, authorities said.

Kim Ayotte, general manager of emergency and protective services for the city of Ottawa, said 125 homes were damaged in Half Moon Bay, a neighborhood in the southern end of the Barrhaven suburb.

He said most damage involved roofs being ripped, windows broken or damage inflicted by falling trees.

“It’s a variety of damage from small damage to quite substantial damage,” he said.

He said only one minor injury had been reported involving someone whose foot was cut.

Monica Vaswani, a warning preparedness meteorologist at Environment Canada, said several funnel clouds were reported in the Ottawa area Thursday afternoon but only one tornado had been confirmed as of midafternoon.

The community is about 14 miles south of Parliament Hill on Ottawa’s rapidly growing south end.

Laurie Gillespie said her 82-year-old mother and her sister were at the home when her sister noticed a storm coming in and went outside to pull in a chair so it wouldn’t blow away. The windows in the living room, bathroom and bedroom all blew in, strewing glass everywhere, while much of the roof was torn off, she said.

“The curtains on the bathroom window were sucked right out and they ended up on the roof,” Gillespie said.

Gillespie said there was damage for about a two- to three-block radius around her mother’s home. Some roofs were ripped apart and foam blocks used as insulation in the attics exploded.

Ottawa police asked people to avoid the Barrhaven area and stay away from downed power lines.