There are stories emerging from Angus of the moment the tornado touched down and the moments after – of loss, luck, missing loved ones, and the burden of being spared.
“We noticed the wind was getting crazy,” recalls resident Roxanne Cronk. “Our trampoline went up in the air, we got the kids to the basement at that point the front door burst in and Fonzie ran out so we haven’t seen him since the tornado strike.”
Fonzie, the family dog that’s a black greyhound with a white face, is still missing. But their trampoline was found in a tree at the Tiffin Centre for Conservation about four-and-a-half kilometers away.
“The house will be taken care of, the family is safe and sound,” Cronk says. “We just need to get our last family member back. That's key right now.”
Fonzie isn’t the only pet that’s gone missing. And missing pets is just one of the challenges Angus residents face as they look ahead to months of work to rebuild.
Nevertheless, they’re grateful the tornado wasn't worse than it was.
Chris Robinson watched the tornado tear through his neighbourhood from a distance while he was at work.
“I knew which direction it was coming from. It was going from my house to my work. I was very concerned about my family and all of the people around,” Robinson says.
He says he was one of the lucky ones when it was all over but it’s difficult to be happy when his neighbours are still suffering. Today he was helping out at a neighbourhood relief centre where families can pick up whatever they might need.
“The first thing I thought of when I got home was I saw the house next door missing everything. the house on the other side missing everything. and my house was standing proud,” he says. “It's pretty hard to look at.”
Annelise Dent found herself in the centre of the vortex in her car, but she wasn't injured.
“It's sad that people have lost their homes and have been displaced, but no one was hurt really badly and nobody died and I think that's the most important thing,” she says.
