TORNADO HITS CANADA

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27047, 23 May 1953, Page 7

TORNADO HITS CANADA

Four Known Dead;

Hundreds Hurt

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 8 p.m.) OTTAWA, May 21. A tornado swept across the United States border into Canada today causing the death of at least four persons and injuring about 100. Property damage was estimated at more than 2,000,000 dollars.

A man of 83 died at Port Huron when his.honte was swept away, and at Springbank, Ontario, a man, his six-year-old daughter and a woman of 80 were killed when their houses were shattered by the storm.

The storm struck with a force that it lifted several trucks from a goods train off the rails. Two of the train crew were injured. The damage in Port Huron alone was estimated at 1,000,000 dollars.

It was reported as even heavier across the St. Clair river in the city of Sarnia. These twin cities have a population of about 35,000 each.

The storm spent its fury over Lake Ontario after hedgehopping from southeastern Michigan across the'south-west of Ontario. It left a trail of destruction along a 40-mile path. Officials at Sarnia said that more than four blocks of the city’s main street was a mass of twisted cars r fallen bricks and shattered glass. The Mayor of Sarnia estimated the damage at 1,000,000 dollars. , Ontario’s Welfare Minister (Mr W. A. Goodfellow said the tornado was one of the worst disasters ever to strike the province. The tornado also struck Ailsa Craig, Exeter, and Elgenfield in Ontario. Away in the south, levees broke in Texas and Louisiana, rendering 25,000 homeless in spring floods which were the worst in a generation. In the south-west quarter of Louisiana damage to crops, property and livestock was officially estimated at more than 150.000.000 dollars.

At least 10 persons are dead in Louisiana. In Colombia, floods and storms raging for the last two days caused 18 deaths, and left 2000 families homeless. Fourteen miners were killed in a cave-in of a gold mine near Santa Teresa, in Tolima State.