Dissecting the damage: Goderich, Ontario’s 2011 tornado

A very large debris field, including bricks flying from older structures, accounted for much of the damage caused by the F3 tornado that hit Goderich, Ontario in August 2011, according to an eyewitness account.

Also, the older age of the structures created an asbestos risk that prevented insurance adjusters from accessing the site for some time.

Sarah Stenabaugh, a graduate student in the doctoral program at Western University, worked with Environment Canada and emergency personnel in the downtown core of Goderich, Ontario within three hours of the tornado causing extensive damage in the area. She spoke at the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR)’s Friday Forum on Mar. 9.

A month after the tornado hit Goderich, preliminary figures from PCS Canada, as reported by the Insurance Bureau of Canada, showed an insured damage estimate of approximately $75 million, although later estimates have been higher.

Stenabaugh noted many of the downtown buildings were built closely together, and were masonry and double-brick structures. Flying bricks made up part of a very wide debris field that caused a damage path estimated at half a kilometre wide and that extended for 20 kilometres.

Stenabaugh showed pictures of the damage, many of which showed broken windows due to bricks flying through the air. Some bricks had smashed through vehicle windows; one picture showed a brick lodged in a truck’s front windshield after having initially smashing through the driver’s side window.

The debris field also contained pieces of masonry, wood and two-by-fours. Stenabaugh said the buildings in Goderich’s downtown core area were built sometime around in the early 1900s.

The age of the buildings also complicated adjusters’ access to the scene, because of a health risk.

“One of the interesting aspects of the age of the structures was the presence of asbestos,” said Glenn McGillivray, managing director of the ICLR. “We never really had to deal with that in the past with a catastrophe of this nature. It’s one of the reasons the downtown core was shut down for so long and one of the reasons why insurance adjusters weren’t allowed into that [downtown] core for some time.”

A webinar of the event is available at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQhO5gVJYsE&feature=youtu.be