Southern Ontario tornado cleanup efforts underway
Matthew Gagnier was out early Thursday morning snapping cellphone photos of the wreckage left behind by a storm that rocked Windsor, Ont., on Wednesday.
He navigated police cars and police tape barricading nearby Deziel Drive to get up close to one of the hardest-hit locations, the Greenwood Centre industrial park.
He's one of many who've come out to survey the damage after the storm that spawned two tornadoes. A second tornado was also seen in nearby LaSalle.
"Look at this — part of that building is gone," Gagnier shouted, pointing his phone at ruined sections of an industrial building.
But Gagnier wasn't just looking to get pictures. He'd been sent to the site to find out if the Windsor Disposal Service building was open. If it wasn't, he couldn't go to work driving his dump truck for a local subcontractor.
"We're closed down today, and until whenever WDS is open again," Gagnier said. "I talked to [police] officers — they said it would be closed for at least a day or so."
The WDS building is in the heart of the industrial park off E.C. Row Expressway. It's right across the street from a building that lost a 150-foot concrete wall during the storm. Power lines were knocked down, and as of Thursday afternoon it was impossible to get through.
"I'm losing pretty good money, that's for sure," Gagnier said. "The two job sites we have require WDS to be open. We don't have contracts for other places to dump anymore stuff. We're pretty much out of work for 10 employees today."
Power, hydro shut off
Windsor police and Enwin energy crews cordoned off areas surrounding the park Thursday as contractors and business owners began the cleanup.
Workers with Myers Towing were busy moving away vehicles left in the parking lot overnight. Most had shattered windows, dents and debris strewn in their interior.
By noon Thursday, the site, which had been a silent monument to the storm, buzzed with the sounds of workers cutting steel, removing trees and repairing downed power lines.
At the Fit and Healthy fitness centre, personal trainers dumped buckets of water out of their waterlogged building. Some of the workers were inside the gym when the storm struck Wednesday, watching water rain down through a crack in the roof.
"We stayed on top of it right away with buckets and towels and everything that we could," Ben Graham said. "It's tough in a situation like that to stay reasonable and logical. You're very overwhelmed and panicked.
"I don't think the damage is too bad, but obviously we're going to be out of play for a little while with the damage to the flooring, walls and roof," he said.
Though he saw the storm damage his workplace and cripple his black Dodge, Graham says he's taking things in stride.
"I'm not worried," he said. 'It's a part of life, you just need to roll with the punches."
