'It was unlike anything I've ever seen': Cleanup underway after tornado touches down near Chatsworth, Ont.

Kitchener -

A tornado left behind a trail of destruction after it touched down Saturday just east of Chatsworth, Ont.

The twister toppled trees, flattened buildings and left some roads impassable.

Roxie Zehr and her five children saw the tornado coming just before it hit her home.

“We ran to the basement and thankfully it was just in time. It happened so quickly.”

When she emerged, she was stunned by the damage.

“It was overwhelming to see it all. Mudroom, garage… gone.”

In less than 10 minutes the tornado destroyed nearly everything the Zehr family owned. Their van was crushed by fallen trees, and their personal belongings were left scattered among building debris. The family’s 100-year-old barn was also levelled.

“I’m finding parts of our house three-quarter kilometres back in the field,” added Brandon Zehr.

While there’s not much left on the property, the family says what’s most important is that everyone is safe.

No injuries have been reported in the township.

“Just seeing all this, it just makes you realize what’s important,” says Roxie Zehr. “All that stuff we had really means nothing.”

The community is helping the family to clean up the property.

Volunteers are also working to remove downed trees from the roadways.

Scott Mackey, Chatsworth’s mayor, says there’s a lot of work that still needs to be done over the next week.

“We’ve had two barns that have been completely destroyed, couple of other houses that are suffering from some structural damage.”

“It was unlike anything I’ve ever seen,” says Brittney Wright.

She caught some of the aftermath on her camera.

“The trees were down, corn fields were completely flat. At one point we saw a barn completely flat on the ground.”

Wright left her apartment after being alerted by a tornado warning.

Rob Kuhn, a severe weather meteorologist for Environment Canada, says those messages can sometimes appear on the radar quickly.

“Sometimes it’s short-fused, last minute. It’s a balance. You want to give the head’s up, but if you go too far ahead it’ll be a false alarm.”

Environment Canada says at least one tornado touched down Saturday.

A team from Western University’s Northern Tornadoes Project is investigating the damage left behind by the storm.