10 - Southpoint Sun
Wednesday, June 3, 2020
MEMORIES OF TORNADO STILL VIVID
This home at the corner of Park Street and Erie South sustained major roof damage.
This vehicle on Bayview took the brunt of a falling tree.
Mark Ribble photos
Twister tore through Leamington on June 6, 2010
By Mark Ribble I was a reporter with the Leamington Post on June 6, 2010 and I got a 6am phone call from my youngest son. I was living in Tecumseh and made my way to Leamington and into the middle of the destruction. Fellow reporter Pat Bailey and I took many photos that day, some of which were published and many that were not. Some of those are on these pages. Ten years ago this weekend, the infamous Leamington tornado caught local residents by surprise. The twister struck in the middle of the night and experts at the time said it was probably a good thing that most people were asleep in their beds. The Leamington tornado was part of a large weather system that produced numerous tornadoes that weekend. Earlier, the storm had touched down near Dundee, Michigan and, contrary to popular myth, made its way across Lake Erie. After briefly touching down near Harrow along the county’s southern shoreline, the storm skipped across Kingsville and delivered its full wrath upon Leamington’s southernmost corridor. The devastation evident at first light along county Rd. 20 (Hwy 18) and near Seacliff Park was nothing short of a war zone. Chuck Parsons was Leamington’s Fire Chief in 2010. The evening had been uneventful until he woke to phone calls. “We had spent the evening celebrating Warren Dunford’s retirement,” CHUCK Parsons, now PARSONS the Fire Chief in Kingsville, said. He got the call to come in and as he headed toward the south end of
town, he started to see huge trees uprooted. When he reached Bevel Line, he saw severe damage near the golf course. “I knew we were in trouble,” he said. Parsons made his way to the downstairs of the old Leamington Municipal Building, to activate the Emergency Response Centre. “We’d been practicing for this event for a few years,” he said. He called in the rest of the Emergency Response Team, including Leamington CAO Bill Marck, who lived in Kingsville. “When Bill arrived at the Town Hall, he said he’d seen nothing to indicate a tornado,” Parsons recalls. “I said, let’s go for a ride.” What they saw was like a scene from a movie. As they approached the southern end of town, it was clear this was a major disaster. Leamington Mayor John Adams was on Pelee Island for the weekend and unable to get back. Deputy Mayor Rob Schmidt stepped in and together, they got things moving by declaring an emergency. Over 200 homes were affected by the twister, but luckily, no serious injuries or deaths were reported. According to Parsons, so many things had to fall into place and they did. “We had great cooperation and help from the utilities companies, Salvation Army, Red Cross and the Leamington Police,” he said. The years of planning paid off and Parsons was happy that everyone worked cooperatively. “There were no egos in the room,” he said. Although clean-up took several weeks, Parsons and his fire crew
were there making sure everyone was safe immediately, coordinating the clearing of debris and checking on residents. And thankfully the best practices and guidelines set out in the emergency plan gave them something to go on. Parsons believes that the challenges presented by having the Emergency Operations Centre in the basement of the old town hall, helped shape the new modern operations centre they currently have at the new town hall. He’s grateful to his crew, the town and local police and EMS for all of their help during the weeks that followed. He’s also grateful to the community as a whole. ————— Major Corey Vincent, who is now with the Salvation Army in Sydney, Nova Scotia, was Captain Corey Vincent at the Leamington Salvation Army when the tornado hit in 2010. He and his family had only been in Leamington for just under a year when he faced the biggest challenge of his career on June 6, 2010. “My wife and I had gathered the kids earlier that night and brought them to the basement,” he said. “Then we finally went to bed.” He was also awakened by a phone call, which was someone asking if there would be church that morning. “I said of course there will be church. Why wouldn’t there be?” he said. The caller pointed out that much of southern Leamington had been destroyed by a tornado.
“I said of course there will be church. Why wouldn’t there be?” — Corey Vincent
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Erie St. South near Franklin Ave. around 7am on June 6, 2010. Residents were wandering in shock.
This Mini Cooper was featured in many of the news shots of the day. It was parked in front of a residence on Park Street. Seacliff Park took a direct hit from the twister and the neighbouring streets were seriously damaged. The tornado’s path took it easterly along Seacliff Drive, causing destruction along the way. Businesses along Seacliff near the Roma Club were affected. The path went out past Gore Hill School and exited into the lake along East Beach Road.
