A crew from Environment Canada will be on hand in LaSalle today to determine whether or not a tornado touched in the small southwestern Ontario town.
The storm downed power lines, uprooted trees and severely damaged a number of homes in the Deziel Drive area of LaSalle shortly after 7 p.m.
According to Environment Canada, four workers from its Toronto office will be sent to LasSalle today to confirm that the damage resulted from a tornado.
As part of their investigation, the workers will be surveying the damage and speaking with eye witnesses.
As of now, Environment Canada considers the storm a “probable tornado,” however Warning Preparedness Meteorologist Geoff Coulson tells CP24 that he has little doubt that crews will confirm that at least one tornado did in fact touch down in LaSalle.
Coulson also said that it is possible that the same tornado continued onward into Windsor or that a second one was spawned by the same weather system.
“When we arrive on these damage scenes we are looking for tracks of damage that are long and narrow but given the eye witness accounts and given the video we have there is no doubt there was at least one tornado track,” he said.
According to Environment Canada, the storm developed quickly over the Detroit River and then tracked northeast.
A total of three people suffered minor injuries as a result. A number of roads were also closed due to flying debris.
“It was unmistakable as far as I am concerned that it was a tornado that touched down because of the swath and the manner in which it appears it travelled through the community,” LaSalle Mayor Ken Antaya told CP24 earlier on Thursday morning. “It’s not something you expect to see in your community.”
Antaya said he personally saw a “trampoline on a roof” and “a shed that used to be behind one house that was across the street and on top of another” following the storm.
“It was kind of scary,” he said.
