The Ottawa Storm of 2018

Supporters sold t-shirts to raise money for those impacted by the storm. They labeled them under #resilience following the aftermath of the 2018 September storm.

2018 marked the first time in 120 years since Ottawa had tornadoes in September and they came to leave a mark to remember by.

September brought the beginning of school again for many and it came with a rough start. The heat of summer started to fade into a brisk cold that came and went through the month. Strong winds picked up around Ottawa and carried with them a series of tornadoes. The first hit over the weekend after the 21st when many people around Ottawa received warnings.

Sitting on the bus myself on the way home on the 21st of September, a Friday I first heard the blare of alarms setting off phones down the bus. Some people seemed to shrug it off after silencing their phones while other linger on their phone screens with scrunched brows and looks of concern. Ottawa has received warnings before about Tornadoes but so far none had really come through to being true.

The tornadoes hit hard knocking out power lines and leaving people in the dark. As it tore through Ottawa to Gainuea, massive amounts of people suffered severe damage to their homes. Even schools were broke apart, trees uprooted and power lines coming down.

All over the world catastrophe happens especially in certain areas. The news is sprinkled with breaking news on the latest damage Mother Nature has unleashed and created. The difference with Ottawa is that we don’t tend to see these kind of effects. Large groups of people couldn’t prepare for the damage that suddenly was breaking down doors, tearing off roofs and shattering windows. Through the followings weeks a total of 6 tornadoes hit Ottawa. People were left stranded, blocked out of their homes and away from their things.

Being a practicing Journalism student it appeared to be the perfect time to practice doing ‘Streeters’ and conducting our own stories. For those who don’t know what Streeters are, they are the people you approach without planning interviews ahead. Stopping someone on the street, around school or your neighbourhood and asking them questions to record is a Streeter.

For my audio assignment I went around Algonquin to ask people if they had been effected by the storm and if so, how much? I got my required recordings of people’s experiences and did my edit for my assignment covering the aftermath of the storms.

Here are some quotes from what was shared with me during my brief interviewing:

Question: How were you effected by the storm?

Interviews done around Algonquin College.

Done on September 25, 2018

Person 1:

“I have to go to downtown to eat thing and even I go to my friends place to take a shower, cause we only get power back Saturday midnight. We got the power shut down just after, afternoon Friday. Between Fisher Avenue and the Baseline Road.”

Person 2:

“The power went out for 36 hours. I’m near Mooney’s Bay so my power came back on relatively quickly in comparison but I do have friends who had power out and I had them at my house, kind of like housing them while they were waiting. My one friend just got her power back after 51 hours.”

Person 3:

“I live about 5-10 minutes from where it actually hit in Dunrobin, so I was actually at work and I remember like one of our chairs from our Patio flew into the intersection. I didn’t even realize it was a real tornado until my mom texted me saying that the cafe right next to my high school was gone. I have now five friends who don’t have houses anymore cause they live on the street where it hit. One of my friends was in hospital and only just got out a couple days ago. She as far as I know, I think she broke a couple of ribs and then I think had a collapsed lung. So they couldn’t even discharge her because she didn’t have a house to go rest at. They just found her cat so that was a small silver lining.”

This of course was only scratching the surface of what happened and how many people were effected. Living in the Orleans area I didn’t suffer the same effects as most. There is still help and fundraising in the works to assist those who were greatly impacted by the storms.

Currently at Algonquin College in the E building there are some students who are helping by hosting a small fundraiser to support the effect. They are selling $20 shirts but are also taking any other donations people may be willing to give. They are around just for the first week of October so far. The grey t-shirts are printed with #Resilience in green above a green square with a stenciled out tornado figure in the center. The green lettering continues at the bottom reading September 21 . 2018 Eastern Ontario . Western Quebec.

Following the storm it has still shown how Canadians come together to try and help the harshly impacted. People are soldiering on among the storms and damage though some are still struggling to reclaim their things and figure out what the future of their property is going to be.

If you were affected by the storm I hope you’ve been able to reach out and receive any help you might need. As for the future it will be a waiting game to see how the weather shifts throughout the colder season.