'The noise was like a freight train,' Barrie tornado victim sought refuge in car
Connie Barszcz was dropping off a package to a friend's home in Barrie ahead of the storm on July 15, but by the time she got there, the weather had taken a turn for the worse.
Her friend wasn't home, and the winds were rapidly picking up speed, leaving Barszcz to seek refuge in her car.
"I thought I was going to die," she says. "That's why I was calling my husband. I just wanted to say goodbye.
I just felt like this was going to be the end of it, and part of me wanted to jump out of the car to find somewhere better to be, but really it was the best place for me to be."
Experts said it was an EF-2 tornado that ripped through the city's southeast neighbourhood, tearing second-storeys from homes, flipping vehicles and uprooting trees.
Barszcz says she considers the fact that she is alive today a miracle.
"It was just like looking in a snowball. It was like you could not see anything, and the noise was like a freight train," she says. "All I could hear was things smashing into my car, smashing into houses."
As the community continues to pick up the pieces, emergency services ask those who don't live in the tornado-stricken area to stay away.
"This isn't a sight-seeing event," says Derek Wilson, the assistant deputy fire chief for Barrie Fire and Emergency Services.
"This is, people's lives were significantly disrupted, and if we could respect the process that they are going through, it would be really encouraged and appreciated," he adds.
CITY SEEKS PROVINCIAL RELIEF FUNDING
The City of Barrie is unsure whether it will receive emergency funding from the province following the tornado 10 days ago.
As of Monday, 70 unsafe orders remain in effect on homes in the area of Prince William Way in the city's southeast end.
The city hired a contractor to chip the debris from trees left out on the curb as homeowners and volunteers continue to work towards getting some of the hardest-hit neighbourhoods back to normal.
"It's a slow rebuild, I guess you could say," says Mike Nicoloff, who has spent most of the last 10 days helping his brother-in-law pick up the pieces after the tornado hit his home. "Right now, it's cleaned up quite a bit. It really doesn't give you the full story unless you're there when it happened, and it's incredible."
The city expects to receive confirmation whether it will qualify for Ontario's Disaster Relief Assistance Program (ODRAP) in the coming days. ODRAP works towards helping cities, individuals, farmers, and non-profits recover following a disaster.
"For some of the folks, this is going to be a longer-term recovery," Deputy Fire Chief Derek Wilson says.
"Some of the buildings were very, very badly damaged and will need significant reconstruction. So some of those folks are looking at months probably, not weeks in their recovery," he notes.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'It could be catastrophic': Woman says natural supplement contained hidden painkiller drug
A Manitoba woman thought she found a miracle natural supplement, but said a hidden ingredient wreaked havoc on her health.
After hearing thousands of last words, this hospital chaplain has advice for the living
Hospital chaplain J.S. Park opens up about death, grief and hearing thousands of last words, and shares his advice for the living.
WHO likely to issue wider alert on contaminated cough syrup
The World Health Organization is likely to issue a wider warning about contaminated Johnson and Johnson-made children's cough syrup found in Nigeria last week, it said in an email.
WATCH Video shows dramatic police takedown of carjacking suspects chased through parking lot north of Toronto
Police have released video footage of a dramatic takedown of a group of teens wanted in connection with an attempted carjacking in Markham earlier this month.
Canada, G7 urge 'all parties' to de-escalate in growing Mideast conflict
Canada called for 'all parties' to de-escalate rising tensions in the Mideast following an apparent Israeli drone attack against Iran overnight.
'It was all my savings': Ontario woman loses $15K to fake Walmart job scam
A woman who recently moved to Canada from India was searching for a job when she got caught in an online job scam and lost $15,000.
Families to receive Canada Child Benefit payment on Friday
More money will land in the pockets of some Canadian families on Friday for the latest Canada Child Benefit installment.
After COVID, WHO defines disease spread 'through air'
The World Health Organization and around 500 experts have agreed for the first time on what it means for a disease to spread through the air, in a bid to avoid the confusion early in the COVID-19 pandemic that some scientists have said cost lives.
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer denied bail after being charged with killing Canadian couple
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer, one of two men charged in the killings of a Canadian couple in Dominica, has been denied bail.