'I was so scared': Lachute, Que., woman describes tornado ripping through her backyard

Story transcript

LorraineGirarddidn't need a meteorologist to tell her a tornado ripped through her neighbourhoodon Tuesday night.

She and her husband were in their Lachute, Que., home with their three-year-old grandson and five-month-old granddaughter when the windows started rattling and huge pieces of wood from the neighbour's house started flying through their yard.

"I was yelling because I was so scared," Girardtold As It Happens guest host Jim Brown. "I was just protecting the little baby and the other one ... and he was crying because he saw me cry,andI was crazy, you know? I was sure we were ... going to die."

• Tornado leaves 40 homeless in Lachute
• Montreal storm leaves destruction in its wake

Environment Canada has confirmedthe townnorthwest of Montreal was hit by a tornado on Tuesday,causing severe damage to more than a dozen homes.

Ren Hroux, a meteorologist withthe weather agency, saidit was a category F1 tornado, with winds up to 180 kilometres per hour, thattouched down around 6:10 p.m.

Girard's home is largely unscathed and her family are unharmed. Buthergrandson, she said, was inconsolable all night.

"Hewas crying and he was yelling and he didn't sleep last night," she said.

The tornado ripped through in a flash, she said.

"About 30 seconds and it was all finished," she said. "But my yard isfinished too."

Her neighbour's roof ended up in pieces in her backyard pool, and her gazebo was ripped from its foundations and thrown some 30 metres away, she said.

The transformers in her neighbourhood were destroyed, and she's been left without power for the time being.

"I was sure that my house was going to go in the wind too," she said. "I'm in shock today. ... I'm just looking outside and I cannot believe that's happened here."

With files from CBC Montreal