Speaking from his home in Lakefield, Ontario, Ed Paleczny is still visibly shocked by the horrific moments he shared with his wife last weekend as they watched a storm shatter the wooden house they were sheltering inside. .
“Until you’re in a house with the roof torn off and the sound of a train entering through your door, you’ll never know how it feels,” Paleczny said.
The couple was caught in a devastating storm, a rare and rapid event known as law, which devastated Ontario and Quebec on Saturday. Before it arrived, many families had enjoyed a long, sunny weekend.
In the early hours of the day, an intrusive emergency alert was triggered for the Toronto area after a wind report of 132 km / h at Kitchener Airport, Ontario, sending messages to television and radio stations. as well as mobile phones.
But many people in the Peterborough area had no idea what was in store for them, unless they were paying attention to the weather forecast. The same alert was not sent to this region.
Paleczny’s wife and daughter had just returned home after a boat trip on Lake Stoney. Nearby, a neighbor’s teenagers were paddling their kayaks, while another group had just jumped on a pontoon boat.
It was only moments later that they saw the first signs of a storm.
“The sky got dark, then it turned green. And then we heard a loud roaring sound, and then there was a white wall of rain coming up to us,” Paleczny said.
“I can’t believe that with today’s technology, [there was] absolutely no alert on my phone, on my wife’s phone, [or] our daughter ‘s phone “.
After the storm, Paleczny discovered that the winds had blown this boat into a tree. (Submitted by Ed Paleczny)
‘That’s all. They were done ‘
Some people did not arrive on time. The storm has claimed the lives of 11 people.
One of them, a 64-year-old woman, was hit by a tree that fell while camping in the Peterborough area. Another victim, a 61-year-old Lakefield man, died after a tree fell on him.
The storm left a trail of destruction in southern Ontario and Quebec, shedding trees, damaging buildings and leaving approximately 900,000 homes and businesses without electricity at their peak.
Paleczny said his family only had a few minutes to take refuge in his home.
Paleczny said strong winds broke up to 50 mature pine trees in the woods around his cottage on Lake Stoney, near Lakefield, Ont. (Submitted by Ed Paleczny)
“While trying to keep the door closed, we saw that the wooden frame was breaking. The actual wooden frame was blowing in the wind and the metal roof was torn off,” he said. “My wife was thinking, ‘That’s it. We’re done.’
Despite extensive damage to his property, Paleczny and his family survived. He is now looking for answers as to why he and his neighbors did not receive prior notice.
“A little warning would have come a long way,” he said.
Why the severe storm alert was not activated
Saturday’s deadly storm was the first time Canada has issued an intrusion alert for a severe extreme storm warning. Until last year, only tornado warnings triggered emergency transmission on cell phones and television and radio programming.
But in June 2021, Environment Canada expanded its weather alert program to include a very specific subset of extreme storm warnings. Due to the changes, only the alert for strong storms expected to reach wind speeds of at least 130 km / h or those expected to produce hail of at least seven centimeters is activated.
Peter Kimbell, an Environment Canada warning meteorologist, explained that as the law progressed through southern Ontario, meteorologists were not so sure that winds would reach 130 km / h when the storm hit the area. of Peterborough.
This meant that the alert was not activated for the Peterborough area because it did not reach the threshold. Although it was issued for the neighboring Lindsay-Northern Kawartha Lakes region, he said.
Lessons learned: Is the threshold too high?
Kimbell said it is worth discussing whether 130 km / h is the right threshold in advance, especially considering that much of the damage was caused by maximum winds in the range of 120 to 130 km / h.
“There’s a balance between warning people about extreme events and over-warning,” he said.
Kimbell explained that while storm warnings are always available through various media channels, as well as through Environment Canada’s WeatherCan. website i applicationit would not be practical to activate intrusive alerts for each storm.
“I think people would start getting annoyed with us pretty quickly, so we’re really restricting it to those who will be especially outstanding,” he said.
George Kourounis, a Toronto-based storm hunter who is a resident explorer at the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, said it is difficult to strike the right balance.
“If you give too many alerts, people become complacent,” he said.
Toronto storm hunter George Kourounis, seen here reviewing a tornado forecast in Oklahoma, said last weekend’s law will be a case study for meteorologists as they evaluate the effectiveness of the new storm alert extreme. (Peter Rowe)
He thinks an extreme storm warning is the right idea, although he suggests that the wind speed threshold could probably be lowered.
“They could probably slow it down a bit: 120km / h will still do huge damage, especially if it’s in a wide range, like these lawful events,” Kourounis said.
“I think this particular storm will be a good test bed for meteorologists who issue such alerts, to look back and see how effective it was.”
Although Paleczny is grateful to have weathered Saturday’s storm, he said he expects Canada’s alert system to improve before another one arrives.
“We definitely need a better warning system that responds … that separates a regular storm from a powerful and damaging storm that is creating a path of destruction,” he said.