Tornado! 1968

On Sunday, June 30, 1968 (I believe that was the date) there was a very violent storm centered around Denbury and Princeton, and down Denbury to Richmond Road. Was very likely a tornado but never officially called. Luckily it was a Sunday and summer break had just begun, because otherwise there would be lots of kids walking to and from school along this route.

I was babysitting my younger siblings and herded them into the basement as the sky got very dark and the winds picked up. I had always been interested in storms, so I stayed upstairs to watch. I remember the sky turned a strange dark yellow/brown color and fierce winds came up out of nowhere. I watched as lightning struck a transformer on a pole, and everything went flying into the street with huge blue-green sparks. I saw many large tree branches crashing down but luckily the huge tree right across the street didn’t fall. Just down the block, a few other trees didn’t survive the winds — and these were really huge, old trees. Some were split open and some were uprooted!

Right after the storm I went out with my camera (of course).

My school, Nepean High, directly across from our house.
Electric pole with emergency fire alarm pull-box right next to our house. Turns out that when it fell it triggered a fire alarm and the fire department arrived shortly afterwards
Two trees uprooted and fell on homes. Fortunately they fell rather slowly and didn’t cause too much damage.
The wind was strong enough to split this huge old tree trunk. You can judge it’s size by the people standing around it. Also note the old car!
Imagine the power of the wind that was able to pull this tree out of the ground
Old fire truck arrives on the scene at intersection of Denbury Ave and Richmond Road