The Sarnia tornado was an F4.

The day the tornado hit town: Today is the anniversary of the storm of 1953
By Stephen Huebl
The Observer (Sarnia)
Wednesday, May 21, 2003
Page A1 / FRONT

Fifty years ago today Sarnia felt the brunt of the worst tornado to hit Canada at that time.
On May 21, 1953, heavy rain and golfball-sized hail preceded the tornado that devastated the downtown.
The storm continued across Lambton and Middlesex counties, and passed just north of London. In all, the storm was responsible for seven deaths, five of them in Ontario. The tornado caused $5 million worth of damage in Sarnia.
Sarnia's most damaged downtown landmarks included the Vendome Hotel, the Imperial Bank, Taylor's furniture store and the Imperial Theatre. The theatre sustained so much damage that it was later demolished.
Debris cluttered Christina Street and trees were toppled along the half mile-wide swath of destruction the tornado left.
Pat McLean, whose family lived at the corner of Brock and Cromwell streets, said trees were falling all over the place.
"It was like somebody was playing pickup sticks and everything dropped," she said.
Geoff Lane of Sarnia was a new Observer reporter at the time and remembers watching a grey spiral cloud rotate above Port Huron. He thought it was a dust devil phenomenon like he had seen in East Africa as he watched it cross the river behind a freighter and disappear from his view at about 5:40 p.m. But when he left the office that was closer to George Street than the current building, he saw the devastation he had narrowly escaped.
Observer staff worked by flashlight at manual typewriters in the powerless city to get the news out.
As they worked, there were sporadic cases of looting after the storm.
Troops from Camp Ipperwash and members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were quickly called in to help local provincial police patrol the streets.
Police Chief Sydney Pratt declared the city under martial law, giving police the power to deal with looters, and acting mayor Clayton Saylor read the riot act from the steps of city hall in an effort to get people to disperse from the streets.
Residents and local industries aided in the cleanup, which began a mere hour after the storm ended.
The Sarnia tornado wasn't the only tornado anniversary this month. May 3 marked the 20th anniversary of the Reece's Corners tornado.
Thirteen people were injured and 18 left homeless after the tornado swept through the small hamlet.
Fourteen homes and businesses were destroyed, including a chicken farm and a Lambton County feedlot.
That storm sparked numerous tornados that touched down across Lambton County and prompted Ontario Premier, David Peterson, to change the way disaster relief funding was handled by the province.

Copyright The Observer (Sarnia) 2003, All Rights Reserved.
Home