More storm damage

Had she not been shopping at Home Hardware in Creemore, and seen the front page of last week’s Echo, Anastasia Phillips says she would not have taken last Friday’s storm warnings seriously.  But news of the June 26 tornado south of Stayner caught her attention so when her phone started bleating emergency warnings she took heed. 

Phillips lives just south of the Stayner adjacent to the water treatment plant on County Road 42.  She tracked the approaching storm for three hours, then when it sounded like a monster coming she and her dog took shelter in the basement. When they emerged, she saw a number of massive trees down in a swath from the northwest corner of her property to the southeast, and a tower at the water treatment plant snapped in half. Dr. David Sills, Executive Director of the Northern Tornadoes Project at Western University in London, says the damage appears to have been caused by thunderstorm down bursts rather than a tornado.