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
A newspaper says video of Prince William and Kate should halt royal rumour mill. That's a tall order
Prince William and his wife Catherine have been filmed at a farm shop near their Windsor home, The Sun newspaper reported -- the first footage of Kate since she had abdominal surgery for an unspecified condition two months ago.
'You ask for your money, they disappear': Ontario man loses $17K to AI crypto scam
A Toronto man is spreading the word of a cryptocurrency scam that lures victims using AI-generated news sites after he lost $17,000 in investments.
Hertz CEO out following electric car 'horror show'
The company, which announced in January it was selling 20,000 of the electric vehicles in its fleet, or about a third of the EVs it owned, is now replacing the CEO who helped build up that fleet, giving it the company’s fifth boss in just four years.
High thoughts: The habits of Canadian cannabis users are revealed in a new StatCan report
Statistics Canada has conducted a series of surveys to measure the impacts of legalized cannabis since the Cannabis Act took effect in 2018. The latest one, the 2023 National Cannabis Survey, sheds light on users' preferences and habits last year.
Demand soars for solar eclipse glasses in Canada. Are they worth buying?
The demand for total solar eclipse glasses used to safely view the rare celestial event has been ramping up as sellers, along with astronomy and eye-care experts in Canada, warn that viewing the eclipse with the naked eye is dangerous.
Trump says Jews who vote for Democrats 'hate Israel' and their religion
Former U.S. president Donald Trump on Monday charged that Jews who vote for Democrats 'hate Israel' and hate 'their religion,' igniting a firestorm of criticism from the White House and Jewish leaders.
Toronto family doctor who called patient's body 'perfect' suspended for 3 months: tribunal
A family doctor in Toronto has been suspended for three months after a disciplinary tribunal found that he failed to follow proper protocols while examining a patient's breasts and made inappropriate comments about her body.
Freddie Mercury's home is on the market for first time since 1980 minus his 'exquisite clutter'
Freddie Mercury's sanctuary in London, where he lived the last decade of his life, is on sale for the first time in nearly half a century -- minus his "exquisite clutter."
'The lost season': Winter comes to a close as Canada's warmest on record
The warmest winter on record could have far-reaching effects on everything from wildfire season to erosion, climatologists say, while offering a preview of what the season could resemble in the not-so-distant future unless steps are taken to cut greenhouse gas emissions.