Latest news with #destruction
CTV News
27-05-2025
- Climate
- CTV News
Marking 37 years since devastating Ontario tornadoes
'Eye of the Storm' documentary produced by CKVR on the F4 tornado that ripped through Barrie in May of 1985. CTV Barrie: Eye of the Storm Pt. 1 Sorry, we're having trouble with this video. Please try again later. [5006/404] An error has occurred On May 31, 1985, a series of tornadoes left a wake of destruction and devastation across central Ontario. On that day, 37 years ago, a powerful EF-4 tornado hit Barrie with winds reaching 400km/h, tossing trees, shredding homes, ending the lives of eight people, and injuring 155 others. It was a day most residents won't soon forget. Northern Tornadoes Project reports the Barrie tornado travelled for 15 kilometres. It first touched down in an industrial area and crossed Highway 400 before wreaking havoc in neighbourhoods. Expand Autoplay 1 of 44 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado May 31, 1985 Barrie Tornado May 31st 1985 from Char # Pictures from the Barrie tornado in 1985 (Courtesy: Frank Callaghan) Barrie Tornado in 1985 on May 31st Barrie Essa Road Fair Grounds Barrie Essa Fair Grounds on May 31, 1985 Barrie Tornado May 31st 1985 from Char # Pictures from the Barrie tornado in 1985 (Courtesy: Frank Callaghan) Barrie Tornado May 31st 1985 from Char # Pictures from the Barrie tornado in 1985 (Courtesy: Frank Callaghan) Barrie Tornado in 1985 on May 31st Barrie Tornado in 1985 on May 31 Barrie Tornado May 31st 1985 from Char # Pictures from the Barrie tornado in 1985 (Courtesy: Frank Callaghan) Barrie Tornado in 1985 on May 31st #3 House On Essa Barrie tornado, May 31, 1985. Barrie Tornado in 1985 on May 31st #9e Allandale Innisfil Barrie tornado, May 31, 1985. Barrie Tornado May 31st 1985 from Char # Pictures from the Barrie tornado in 1985 (Courtesy: Frank Callaghan) TIMELINE OF THE 1985 TORNADOES The devastation took just six hours. The first tornado touched down briefly in the middle of the Bruce Peninsula at 3 p.m. An EF-2 swept through just northwest of Shelburne just over an hour later. An EF-4 with winds topping 115km/h hit Grand Valley, noted as the 'longest tracking tornado in Canada.' At the same time, an EF-3 struck Alma, just northwest of Fergus. Within minutes, another F-3 tornado touched down northwest of Melancthon. At 4:50 p.m., an F-2 tornado pummeled Lisle, just west of Base Borden. Seven minutes later, there was another touchdown a little farther east. At 5 p.m., a powerful EF-4 battered Barrie before it blew out over Kempenfelt Bay. Other areas struck on May 31, 1985, include Uxbridge, Reboro near Lindsay, Ida, Rice Lake, Minto north of Trenton, and Grippen Lake northeast of Kingston. Most had little to no time to prepare for the powerful storms. The event was one of the worst to ever hit central Ontario, causing millions in property damages, killing a dozen people and injuring hundreds of others. Related Stories
BBC News
26-05-2025
- General
- BBC News
Much Wenlock farm shop 'completely destroyed' in fire overnight
A farm shop has been "completely destroyed" in a fire overnight, emergency services workers at the scene have Fire and Rescue Service said it was called to Wenlock Edge Farm on East Wall, Much Wenlock, just before 03:00 BST on blaze involved a single-storey industrial building that also contained the farm shop, Craig Jackson, a fire investigation officer, told the BBC. The building had suffered 95% damage and had been "completely destroyed", but no one had been injured, Mr Jackson said. He added that the cause of the fire was still being investigated. Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service said the industrial building was being used as a meat-processing factory, adding that no one had been inside when crews firefighters were deployed to tackle the blaze in the small hours of the Jackson said the farm's owners had called the fire service after being alerted by neighbours. Follow BBC Shropshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
The Guardian
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Deliver at All Costs review – madcap driving game goes nowhere fast
Deliver at All Costs casts you as a delivery driver in the late 1950s, and it looks fantastic in motion. Almost everything on the map can be destroyed, and there is immediate fun to be had from causing merry mayhem with your truck, clattering through deckchairs on the beach or driving straight through the middle of a diner and watching it collapse spectacularly behind you. But there is a void at the heart of this game where the core hook should have been. We get a glimpse of its potential during a mission that sees you racing to catch up with a rival's delivery truck before it can reach its destination. The aim is to manoeuvre alongside, and hold down a button so the crane on the back of your own truck can sneakily lift the package off their vehicle and on to yours. All the while, rival trucks are attempting to ram you off the road, and after you grab the package, you then have to deliver it while fending off the attentions of these other drivers. It leads to some wonderfully comic scenes in which a hotel owner thanks you profusely for a consignment while standing in front of the ruins of his newly destroyed establishment: a casualty of the violent act of delivery. This one frantic mission is by far the best part of the game, and if the rest of Deliver at All Costs followed a similar path – a Crazy Taxi-style mad dash against the clock between pickup and delivery, with whole neighbourhoods razed in pursuit of logistical efficiency – then there would no doubt be a few more stars stuck to this review. Instead each mission varies wildly in content and quality. Some are passably enjoyable, including one that involves taking photos of a UFO while avoiding its laser beam. Others are simply dull, such as one in which you deliver balloons tied to the back of your truck, which intermittently cause it to rise into the air: more irritating than entertaining. Zany does not equal fun. If all of that kind of thing had been confined to side missions while the main game was about zipping parcels back and forth as quickly as possible, it might have worked. But these hit and miss escapades are all we get, and by the final third, the concept of delivering things is ditched completely. Instead Deliver at All Costs tells a dim-witted story through relentless dull cut scenes, with writing and acting that veer from passable to downright rotten. Protagonist Winston Green is a man with a murky past who ends up at loggerheads with his boss, Donovan, before the game jumps the shark entirely and veers off into po-faced sci-fi nonsense. It doesn't help that the permanently angry Winston is one of the most unlikable video game protagonists ever created. As in Grand Theft Auto, you can hop out of your car and explore, but here there's hardly anything to find, save for a few viewpoints (which are just that) and a tiny handful of side missions. These range from fun (race a parachutist down a mountain) to boring (find a man who looks like the mayor). There is the occasional unique car to discover, but as you have to use your delivery truck for most missions, doing so is largely pointless. The novelty of driving around in, say, a hot dog van wears off in seconds. There are crates full of cash to find too, but there's little of note worth buying. The shop sells spare parts you can use to assemble gadgets for your truck, but apart from the boost-giving jet engine, they're mostly superfluous. It's all so frustrating. Deliver at All Costs offers up a beautiful destructible playground, then barely utilises it, instead focusing on a bizarre, half-baked story that somehow ends in a courtroom drama. It feels like being invited to a glittering champagne reception, then getting collared by a conspiracy theorist who insists on describing the plot of his hokey sci-fi novel for the next eight hours. What a criminal waste. Deliver at All Costs is out on 22 May, £24.99
RNZ News
19-05-2025
- Climate
- RNZ News
Tornado-spawning storms leave 25 dead in 2 states, swaths of destruction across US
By Hanna Park , Matt Rehbein and Ray Sanchez , CNN A house lies collapsed under a mountain of bricks, after a tornado struck in St. Louis, on Friday. Photo: Lawrence Bryant/Reuters via CNN Newsource A violent, tornado-spawning storm system tore across the central US, leaving at least 25 people dead in Missouri and south-eastern Kentucky as it cut a path of destruction through several states. The storm made its way towards Kansas and Oklahoma late on Sunday, where significant damage was reported in Grinnell, a town some 250 miles west of Wichita. Photos show severely damaged homes, blocked roads and overturned vehicles. One image shows a local church with its roof blown off. Parts of the I-70 and Kansas Highway northwest of the state have been closed due to downed power lines near Grinnell, according to roadway tracker KanDrive. In the small town of Plevna, roughly 60 miles from Wichita, Reno County Sheriff Darrian Campbell said a passing tornado on Sunday night caused significant damage to homes. "We did have a tornado touch down and travel approximately 12 miles and went through a small town of Plevna," Campbell said in an email to CNN. There are no reports of injuries in Kansas, where a life-threatening tornado alert was issued for the cities of Sylvia, Plevna and Abbyville until roughly midnight CST. CNN has reached out to state authorities for more details. Over the weekend, 18 deaths were reported in Kentucky, just hours after authorities announced seven fatalities in the St. Louis, Missouri area. Two additional deaths were reported in northern Virginia. Both fatalities were caused by trees falling onto vehicles, one in Fairfax County and another on the George Washington Memorial Parkway, Fairfax County police and the United States Park Police said. The storms damaged homes and downed power lines across the Midwest and Great Lakes, brought by the same system that produced destructive storms and tornadoes on Thursday. Over 100,000 homes and businesses across five states were without power as of Sunday night, with Missouri, Michigan and Arkansas among the hardest hit, according to The same storm system hit Colorado on Sunday afternoon, producing at least two tornadoes. Homes and buildings in Arapahoe, Adams and Elbert County were damaged or lost, according the counties' sheriff's offices. No injuries were reported. It's part of a multiday spate of widespread severe weather stretching into early next week. As the system that generated deadly tornadoes in Missouri and Kentucky loses strength, another round of severe storms is expected near the border with Mexico, thrusting more than 20 million Americans across the Southwest in the risk zone. The image shows lighting over parts of Kentucky. Photo: @pingsteal via X via CNN Newsource The National Weather Service reported a radar-confirmed, "large, extremely dangerous" tornado sweeping east across lower Kentucky shortly after midnight. Video and photos from south-eastern Kentucky show a trail of destruction that began in Pulaski County before moving east into neighbouring Laurel County, leaving at least 18 dead and 10 in critical condition across the state. Videos showed widespread damage to buildings, cars, trees and infrastructure in the wake of the possible tornado. "I've now been governor for at least 14 federally declared disasters, 13 of them weather. And this is one of the worst," Kentucky governor Andy Beshear said at a news conference on Saturday evening. "It's one of the worst in terms of the loss of human life. It's one of the worst in terms of damage." Beshear has declared a state of emergency in the state and requested a federal disaster declaration. Mahala Watts told CNN affiliate WLKY her family was watching the news after 11pm on Friday when their phones started blaring with tornado warnings. She grabbed the dog, and her family took cover in the bathroom in the centre of their home in Laurel County. The storm suddenly roared over her house - as the family was "breathing in all the debris". They got on their hands and knees, Watts told the station. A bathroom mirror fell on Watts before the roar went silent. "We were just kind of praying, you know, scared it was going to come back," she said. "We had no idea the roof was gone. The fridge was blocking the bathroom door." Watts told WLKY her family climbed over the refrigerator and stood outside in the dark, fearing another hit. Cars were overturned and debris was strewn about. They used a relative's car to get to a hospital where they sought refuge before making it to a hotel after the storm passed. Drone video over London, Kentucky, at daylight Saturday showed a vast wasteland of damaged and overturned vehicles and flattened homes as first responders searched heaps of rubble for possible survivors. London is about 75 miles south of Lexington. At the London-Corbin Airport, several planes were damaged and a medical helicopter was destroyed, CNN affiliate WLKY reported, adding officials said at least one airplane was pulled into a funnel cloud. Hangars and other buildings were levelled. In another video from Laurel County, first responders were seen descending on the Sunshine Hills area, a barren landscape of twisted cars, downed trees and piles of debris. Seventeen deaths were reported in Laurel County, including in London, Mayor Randall Weddle told CNN affiliate WKYT. Among those who died was Maj. Leslie Roger Leatherman of the Laurel County Fire Department, who had been responding to the storm, the governor said on Saturday. "I have never personally witnessed what I've witnessed here tonight. There's a lot of devastation," Weddle told WKYT. Police in Corbin, south of London, were responding to mutual aid calls for tornado victims and described the devastation as overwhelming. "Stop and pray for Laurel County residents and victims of the tornado that touched down there," the department wrote. Pulaski County Judge Executive Marshall Todd declared a state of emergency, and crews were working on cleanup efforts, county spokesperson John Alexander told CNN. One person was reported dead in the county. Heavy damage can be seen in Somerset, a city in Pulaski County to the west of London, where emergency officials urged residents to stay indoors. "The southern side of the city has been hit by a possible tornado!" the Somerset Fire Department posted on social media around 11pm on Friday. "Please avoid the area, poles and power lines are down!" A person walks past a large tree blocking a road after a severe storm moved through in St. Louis, on Friday. Photo: Jeff Roberson/AP via CNN Newsource A storm that produced a devastating tornado in the St. Louis area on Friday afternoon has left five people dead and many others injured, according to local authorities. The EF3 tornado travelled at least eight miles, according to an initial survey conducted by the National Weather Service. "We're just a city that's really grieving," the city's new mayor Cara Spencer told reporters on Saturday. About 5,000 buildings have been impacted by the severe weather but she noted, "This community is coming together in a truly, truly amazing way." Spencer called the event "one of the worst storms" in the city's history. A curfew will remain in place overnight and thousands of homes and businesses still have no power. Nearly 40 people were injured, the mayor said. A state of emergency was declared in the city, and officials are seeking a federal major disaster declaration. More than 130 miles to the south of St. Louis, in Scott County, two others were killed during Friday's storms, Sheriff Derick Wheetley announced on social media. Several others were taken to medical facilities, "with injuries ranging from minor to severe", the sheriff added. "The tornado moved from the eastern part of the county, leaving behind a trail of destruction, with multiple homes completely lost and areas left unrecognisable," the sheriff said. The devastation occurred after a tornado warning was issued at 2:34pm on Friday and a "likely tornado" touched down seven to eight minutes later, science and operations officer with the National Weather Service Ben Herzog said. One St. Louis resident Cindy Spellman told CNN her niece was in her apartment when the storm hit. "When the sirens sounded, she went to the basement of her building," Spellman said. When her niece returned to her apartment, "she had to push her way inside because the tornado had thrown all of her furniture to the far walls." They helped clean up after the storm passed and had to park over a mile away due to road closures, Spellman said. Dirt, glass and debris from trees and nearby homes coated everything inside the apartment and building. It took more than four hours to secure her niece's apartment, clean it and remove her necessary belongings before dark. Another resident Joan Miller Hitt was in her home on Friday when it was torn apart like a dollhouse. When a large tree outside started swaying violently and all the doors shut like in the movie "Carrie", Miller Hitt and her husband took shelter in a bathroom. Seconds later, "the whole back of the house was gone." Miller Hitt said she never saw it coming. "I never had any fear of anything happening to that house with a storm because of where I live and the sound structure of the house," she told CNN's Fredricka Whitfield on Saturday afternoon. "I go between being overwhelmed, shocked, teary." Governor Mike Kehoe said he had already been in contact with federal officials about disaster relief. The American Red Cross opened three shelters in St. Louis for storm and tornado victims, the non-profit announced on Saturday. First responders looking for victims or people in distress searched about 4,000 residences. More technical searches with boom microphones and cameras were being conducted on Saturday. One victim was identified as Patricia Pendleton, who had been serving lunches before the storm caused a roof to collapse at Centennial Christian Church, her family told CNN affiliate KMOV. Commissioner of the City Emergency Management Agency in St. Louis Sarah Russell said some of the tornado sirens did not go off on Friday, which would be investigated. "We're looking into that," she told reporters on Saturday. The focus now was on life-saving measures in the community, she added. The citywide system of tornado sirens was being replaced and had undergone testing on Thursday. Residents were encouraged to rely on multiple warning systems, including mobile apps and weather radio, she said. The National Weather Service was surveying the damage and had no information on the intensity, but estimated winds reached 100mph. Herzog's message for residents: "I think the biggest thing would be staying away if you don't need to be around." Extensive damage in the Sunshine Hills area of Laurel County, Kentucky, in the early hours of Saturday, following a possible tornado. Photo: Laurel County Fiscal Court via CNN Newsource As the system that hit Missouri and Kentucky weakens and pushes across the Southeast, another round of severe storms threatens the Great Plains and Texas. The level 3 of 5 threat of severe storms will affect the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex on Saturday evening, with large hail, damaging winds and the potential for tornadoes. The possibility of more severe weather stretches through to Tuesday in the Great Plains and the lower Mississippi River Valley. The Plains will remain the main focus of severe weather on Sunday and Monday as well as the storms passing through Oklahoma and Kansas. The severe thunderstorm threat will then shift back into parts of the Mississippi Valley on Tuesday. - CNN
Forbes
18-05-2025
- Climate
- Forbes
How The 2025 St. Louis Tornado Compares To A Historic One In 1896
A person walks past a large tree blocking a road after a severe storm moved through Friday, May 16, ... More 2025, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson) The very active 2025 tornado season continues with deadly consequences. Nearly 30 people have died after tornadoes moved through the central U.S., including St. Louis. The National Weather Service confirmed that at least one EF3 tornado tracked through parts of the St. Louis Metropolitan area on Friday. The tornado stayed on the ground for 8 miles leaving a wake of destruction, fatalities, and power outages. Here's what we know right about it and how it compares to a historic tornado that ravaged the same city over a century ago. Local media reports, at the time of writing, indicate at least 5 fatalities and several injuries from tornadic activity that impacted the St. Louis area. As of Sunday morning, tens of thousands of people were still without power, particularly in the northern part of the city. The initial survey indicates an EF3 tornado path at least 8 miles long and a mile wide in parts of ... More St. Louis on May 16, 2025. On Saturday evening the NWS office in St. Louis wrote, 'Initial surveying of the May 16 St Louis tornado has been completed only for the portion west of the Mississippi River.' They noted that the tornado began at 2:41 p.m. local time near Clayton and tracked for at least 8 miles reaching EF3 intensity with approximately 150 mph wind. Over the course of its time on the ground, the path reached a maximum width of 1 mile. Because the survey has not been completed for areas east of the river, it is almost certain that tornado was on the ground for additional miles into the state of Illinois. The Enhanced Fujita Scale. While certainly an interesting story, tornadoes in the St. Louis area are not unprecedented. I often use the Midwest Regional Climate Center Tornado Tracks tool in my mesoscale meteorology class at the University of Georgia. We actually did an exercise with it a few weeks ago. From 1950 to 2024, several tornadoes have tracked near St. Louis. Several of them were at least F/EF3 or long track. Tornado tracks from 1950 to 2024 in the Midwest. The Great St. Louis Tornado of 1896 still ranks as the deadliest tornado in St. Louis history. According to a NOAA website, 'It would most likely be rated as an EF4 today, with winds estimated between 168 and 199 mph.' Meteorologist and weather historian Sean Potter told me, 'Without lifesaving weather radars, models, and warnings, we might as well be back in 1896, when a devastating tornado on May 27 cut a 10-mile path of destruction through the heart of St. Louis, killing 255 people and injuring 1,000 others." Potter went on to place the storm in perspective. He continued, "The 1869 tornado in St. Louis still ranks today as the third-deadliest in U.S. history (after the Tri-State Tornado of 1925 and the Natchez, Mississippi, tornado of 1840)." St. Louis from space. Potter, who wrote a retrospective of 1896 tornado in 2022, makes an important point with many NWS offices currently understaffed, and services being reduced. St. Louis is more densely populated now than in 1896, yet there are only 5 confirmed fatalities so far. Thanks to the National Weather Service, we have advanced Doppler radars, models, satellites, and observing systems. Additionally, the NWS works closely with a robust network of emergency managers or responders and other communication outlets. Damage from a tornadic storm system in 1896.
