Experts want hurricane straps on Ontario homes to prevent destruction in severe weather
Following the EF2 tornado in the south end of Barrie that left a trail of destruction so damaging it could take years to rebuild, experts are now questioning the strength of Ontario's building code.
"When it comes to downward forces like the weight of snow on a roof, for example, our code is very good at addressing those downward forces," said Glenn McGillivray, Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction.
"In a wind storm, particularly a tornado, that roof wants to get sucked up, and the code doesn't really address those upward sucking forces very well, or at all, and we want to see that changed," McGillvray added.
According to Canada's property and casualty insurance industry, wind is the most significant driver of disaster losses after water damage, and it can quickly turn deadly.
"This is how people get injured and killed," said McGillivray. "Not so much by the wind itself, but by flying debris- we're talking about chunks of roofs and other chunks of buildings."
The July 15 tornado in Barrie prompted a renewed push for the province to include hurricane straps, ties or screws into the building code to help protect roofs and reduce damage.
"That would go a long way to both better enforcement and better building practices," said a lead researcher with the Northern Tornados Project, Greg Kopp.
But experts say that's only one piece of the puzzle.
"We want to ensure that no only is the roof properly connected to the walls, we also want to ensure that the upper floor is connected well to the main floor and the main floor is connected properly to the foundation," McGillivray said. "It's called and continuous load path."
In mid-July, wind speeds reached 210 kilometres per hour, as the EF-2 twister damaged upwards of 200 homes and injured 11 people in the Prince William Way area of the city..
Seventy homes still have unsafe orders, and roughly 20 roofs were ripped from houses.
Last year, Ontario led the country with 44 tornados, and since 1985, three major ones have touched down in or near Barrie.
"The area between Windsor and Lake Simcoe, sometimes we refer to it as little tornado alley," said senior climatologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, David Phillips.
As cities grow, Phillips said we could see more destruction in the future.
"Because we see more urban sprawl, larger cities and more Canadians are living in cities, it's more likely tornadoes will find targets to hit," he noted. "So those little guys of the past could be more impactful, more damaging, more destructive, more killers in the future."
Right now, the Canadian Standards Association is in the process of developing a standard for factoring in extreme winds in the construction of new homes across the country.
Experts are calling it a big step in the process of changing Ontario's building code.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before Baltimore bridge collapse, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent 'routine engine maintenance' in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
Families shocked after Niagara Falls hotel cancels bookings made year in advance of solar eclipse
After having the foresight to book their Niagara Falls hotel rooms more than a year in advance, several families planning to take in the solar eclipse next month were shocked to find out their reservations had been cancelled.
B.C. rescuers face 'high likelihood' of failure to reunite orphaned orca with pod
The race to reunite an orphaned orca calf that’s stuck in a shallow lagoon with a neighbouring pod has entered its fifth day, and a marine scientist says the clock is ticking.
Video shows police interrupting auto theft in progress outside Toronto home
New video footage obtained by CP24 shows the attempted theft of a vehicle in a North York driveway earlier this month that was ultimately interrupted by police.
Majority of Canadians believe in life after death: Angus Reid survey
A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute has found that a majority of Canadians believe in some form of life after death, a proportion that has held steady for decades.
MyPillow, owned by U.S. election denier Mike Lindell, formally evicted from Minnesota warehouse
A court ordered the eviction Wednesday of MyPillow from a suburban Minneapolis warehouse that it formerly used.