79 years later, survivor recalls Windsor’s deadliest tornado

A 91-year-old Windsor woman reflects on a fatal tornado on June 17, 1948. CTV Windsor’s Travis Fortnum has more.

79 years ago, a tornado tore through Windsor — killing 17 people and flattening homes across the city.

To this day it remains the strongest tornado to strike the area and one of the deadliest in Canadian history.

Katherine Hart was just 12 years old when the storm hit on June 17, 1946.

Now 91, she still remembers how quickly the skies changed.

“It was in the afternoon and it started getting dark,” Hart told AM800s Mornings with Mike and Meg.

“And then all of a sudden the winds were blowing and it was dark outside.”

Hart lived near the intersection of Walker Road and Tecumseh Road East at the time.

“The tornado winds were very, very strong. It was really bad,” she said.

“A tree had a piece of wood right in the tree. That’s how strong that wind was.”

The storm crossed into Windsor from Michigan — touching down in Brighton Beach before carving a path through Sandwich West (now LaSalle), South Windsor, and Tecumseh.

Hundreds of homes were damaged or destroyed.

Entire railcars were thrown off their tracks.

Tornado debris found nearly 90 km away

David Sills with the Northern Tornadoes Project says the 1946 Windsor tornado was ranked an F4 on the Fujita scale — the highest rating ever recorded in the region.

“With an F4 tornado, even things like pavement can be lifted up,” said Sills.

“It’s very powerful winds that are caused with an F4 tornado and not much survives.”

Sills said the force of the twister was so great that debris was found far outside city limits.

“All the way to Merlin,” he said.

“There were cancelled cheques. There were a pair of trousers there. All kinds of things that were found really far away from the tornado.”

The storm caused more than $9.66 million in damage — an estimated $171 million in today’s dollars.

Preserving the stories — and strength — of Windsorites

At the Windsor Public Library, much of the historical record of the 1946 tornado is preserved — thanks in large part to coverage from the Windsor Star.

“At least 75 were sent to the hospitals where they had to rig up a temporary morgue,” said Mary-Lou Gelissen, local history librarian.

“They had to call in people from the Salvation Army. There were volunteers that helped out to start going through different areas.”

She says some of the stories are harrowing.

“There were full-on families that passed away,” Gelissen said.

“There was a family of four. It was a mother who actually went into labour and her and the birth child did not make it. So there’s a lot of real intimate, tragic stories.”

In one case, she says, a family home was lifted entirely off its foundation.

“Their house actually was ripped off of its foundations, and it did a Wizard of Oz swirl. And people saw this happening — people could see. But they all managed to survive.”

“It was a massive local tragedy,” she added.

“I mean, it brought together a lot of people. Everybody came together as a community.”

The photos and articles from the time are now a vital piece of Windsor’s collective memory.

And, Gelissen says, remembering stories like this does more than just honour the past.

“It’s really important because I think sometimes Windsorites tend to begrudge themselves,” she said.

“I think when you have something like this, it brings the memory of your community a lot more forward and it becomes a lot more tangible. So you are looking at something that they survived.”

Residents interested in exploring more of Windsor’s history — or researching their own family ties — can visit the Local History Branch of the Windsor Public Library in Sandwich Town.