Thirty years ago today, on May 31, tornadoes swept across the region, leaving a trail of destruction and devastation.

Flipping through their scrap book of the Barrie tornado is especially difficult for sisters Anita Moreland and Teresa Croft. Their brother David Vanderburgt was killed when the tornado tore through their fathers tire re-trading business.

“They heard a big noise like a train, so he opened up the door to see what the noise was and he saw a building coming straight at them,” says Moreland. “You always wonder these many years later what he would of been like.”

The Vandeburgts searched the rubble for David, but couldn't find him. He was later identified by his aunt at the hospital morgue. David had just celebrated his 27th birthday the day before.

“My dad was sitting down, so he was blown through the walls and Dave was just holding onto the door knob,” says Croft. “The paramedics and the fire rescue all said if he had let go, he might of been alright, but he went up with the building.”

The F-4 tornado cut a five kilometer path of destruction through Barrie. In the city alone, eight people died – more than 150 injured.

“It sounded like freight trains boring down on you from every angle,” says Terry Paddison.

Paddison was home with his two daughters when the tornado hit. He was reading the newspaper in front of his living room window when he suddenly noticed debris flying across the street and then hurried his daughters to safety.

At that point, he says the house imploded; the roof came off and the back three bedrooms disappeared.

His daughter Tanya was only 11-years-old at the time and had decided to take a nap in the basement shortly before the tornado ripped through their neighbourhood and had no idea what happened.

“I just remember the most serial experience, walking up to your bedroom and seeing the sky, just a calm sky after all that craziness,” she says.

The house and the entire block were leveled. Amazingly, Paddison and his daughters were not hurt.

It’s equally as vivid for former Barrie deputy fire chief, Jim Lemieux. He was off duty that day, but rallied 50 full time firefighters and 24 volunteers to aid in disaster relief.

"I came out the door, looked down the street and I thought a bomb had dropped, it was just devastation everywhere.”

Retired firefighter and deputy chief Rick Monkman says crews had no idea what to expect when they arrived.

"When we first got here, there was only a couple of us, it was like where do we start? Because when we first arrived here, people were still coming out of their houses with horrific injuries from flying glass and timber and nails and fractures and it's like where do you start because we just had a little first aid kit on our truck." 

Just months before the tornado hit, the city had put a new emergency plan in place. Lemieux says it worked seamlessly, but as they sifted through the debris, it would take more than training for the community to overcome the devastation.

"I learned that, it's amazing how a community can pull together in an emergency,” says Lemieux. “Everybody in the community pitched in and did what they had to do."

It was one of the worst tornadoes to ever hit central Ontario and, in fact, there hasn’t been a tornado as strong as the ones that hit Barrie and Grand Valley since that day.