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Tornado confirmed north of Belleville, Ont.

Lynn Prest walks beside her damaged house and overturned trailer July 25, 2022 from the aftermath of a storm in Tweed, Ont. Environment Canada has confirmed at least one tornado hit the area. (Lars Hagberg/The Canadian Press - image credit)
Lynn Prest walks beside her damaged house and overturned trailer July 25, 2022 from the aftermath of a storm in Tweed, Ont. Environment Canada has confirmed at least one tornado hit the area. (Lars Hagberg/The Canadian Press - image credit)

UPDATE | Researchers with the Northern Tornadoes Project said July 29 that a single supercell tornado that travelled more than 55 kilometres was responsible for the damage. It was rated EF-2 on the enhanced Fujita scale, with a maximum wind speed of 190 km/h.

Environment Canada says researchers have determined at least one tornado hit the Marmora and Madoc areas north of Belleville, Ont., on Sunday evening.

Winds are believed to have peaked around 175 km/h, according to what investigators have found so far.

"There was a long track of damage due to at least one tornado and downburst winds … The final track length and strength of the winds associated are not yet determined," wrote Environment Canada in an online summary.

Other communities affected include Actinolite and Tweed. The area was hit by May's fatal derecho storm and some parts of that region just got power back earlier this month.

Brockville, Ont., also got about 85 millimetres of rain from the storm.

'Pure devastation'

Thousands of customers lost power during the storm, which triggered tornado warnings from Environment Canada. Fewer than 1,000 customers were still without power Tuesday morning, according to Hydro One, mostly in the Tweed area.

Several trees were also downed on Highway 7. No major injuries were reported to police.

Jo-Anne Albert, mayor of the municipality of Tweed, described the effect of the tornado along Highway 7 as "pure devastation."

Lars Hagberg/The Canadian Press
Lars Hagberg/The Canadian Press

Her own grandson was caught in the tornado and suffered injuries.

"They have a cottage and he was coming home. Another young lad, who was a good friend, was behind in another car," she said.

"And the wind or tornado, we don't know what it was, picked up Brandon's truck and flipped it across the road into the field. He has an eye injury at the moment. He'll now have to keep a patch on it and rest for a week."