While much of the attention has been on the devastated area of Prince William Way and Mapleview Drive, another neighbourhood is requiring significant clean-up in the wake of Thursday’s tornado.
Stunden Lane, located off Mapleview Drive just east of Huronia Road, did not see the destruction that its more easterly counterpart did, but fences and trees were down and some homes have visible damage.
Ashley Faulkner told BarrieToday she saw what she believes may have been the start of the funnel cloud as it formed behind the home across the road from her.
“I’m very paranoid when those kinds of storms are happening so I’m always looking out the windows. I was doing that with my son and I saw the tornado forming over my neighbour’s house,” said Faulkner. “I had been recording it and went to turn the light off in the room for a clearer view and when I came back it was coming right for our house.”
Faulkner admits she did not get much of a visual of the tornado as she was more concerned about getting her three boys and the dogs into the basement.
“The whole time we could hear stuff outside banging and the fences being ripped out of the ground,” said Faulkner. “It was so fast, like over in seconds ... but still so much damage.”
The tornado left Faulkner’s neighbourhood but, unfortunately, not her family’s path.
Her mom lives in one of the heaviest hit areas of the tornado’s path.
“Her townhouse is just absolutely destroyed. Her neighbours' roofs are gone, one home has collapsed on itself, one neighbour’s roof is in her backyard and all the new fencing they had put in is just gone,” said Faulkner.
“My mom’s bedroom ceiling is on her bed and floor, all the windows are smashed and she was doing the same thing as me which was getting the dogs into the basement.”
Faulkner’s home has visible damage with shingles ripped off and pieces of siding gone, but they are awaiting a professional to check the wall where water seems to seeped into.
“My husband said he thinks water got in between the brick wall and the plywood of the house, you can see it’s a little bowed,” said Faulkner, pointing to her home. “There are holes in the roof and lots of water damage with glass all over the house. No one was hurt and truly, that's all that matters.”
The neighbour’s house that may have seen the start of the funnel cloud that Faulkner was referring to was that of Julie Brown, who lives across the street. Brown has family on both sides of her.
The families in the homes at 40, 30 and 26 Stunden Lane are all members of the Brown family who used to own the farmland the neighbourhood now sits on.
Brown took BarrieToday on a tour of her property and described what happened Thursday afternoon, saying “it got really dark and the rain began to fall heavily.”
“It looks like it came in between our two houses and bounced over us and towards the other side of the road,” said Brown. “I could see out the window there were trees flying and about 30 seconds later I came outside and all this happened.”
The “all this” that Brown was referring to was the many damaged, large old trees on her property, some of which are over 50 years old.
“We have some structural damage and we’re waiting on engineers to take the trees off the roof before we really look at that,” said Brown. “But there are some cracked beams in the attic and then the backyard shed and pool are just totalled.”
With so many people affected by the tornado and its destruction, GoFundMe has created a centralized hub page for fundraisers to help Barrie residents respond, rebuild and recover in the aftermath of the tornado.
GoFundMe communications spokesperson Amy Williams told BarrieToday that when it comes to verifying fundraisers, they have multiple layers of protection in place to ensure the safety and security of any donors.
“We deploy proprietary technical tools and have processes we use to verify the identity of an organizer and the beneficiary of the fundraiser. We ask that organizers identify who they are, who they are raising funds for, and how the funds will be spent,” said Williams. “Additionally, before money is transferred to a beneficiary, an individual’s information, including their banking information, must be verified by our payment processor.”
The hub currently has 10 different campaigns to donate to with the money going to families and friends of those trying to help.
To give, you can click this link.
