Family of 10 among dozens still waiting to move back home after Barrie's devastating tornado

When Mike Barranca first heard that a tornado had touched down in Barrie, Ont., he thought it was a joke. 

But then his wife called and told him their home had been caught in the tornado's path of destruction. 

Barranca rushed back from his job in downtown Toronto, worried about his wife and eight children and not knowing what he'd find when he returned home.  

"I didn't know if they were trapped. I didn't know if the house was destroyed," he said. "She had just told me that it was leaking all over. They were in the basement." 

Barranca is among about 40 Barrie families who are still rebuilding their homes this holiday season, after an EF2 tornado, with winds hitting 215 km/h, tore a five-kilometre-long path through a suburban area of the city on July 15.

The damage to Barranca's house alone is estimated at around $210,000 while the overall damage of the tornado was last reported to be $100 million by the Insurance Bureau of Canada.

Though there was no loss of life or serious injuries, the city of Barrie told CBC News 200 to 300 buildings suffered damage.

Danny Melo is a construction worker who was operating an excavator at a site in the tornado's path.

He told CBC News he remembers it starting to rain and the wind picking up, when a two-by-four crashed through the machine's window and hit him in the head. 

"Luckily, I was wearing a hard hat," Melo said. "[But] I noticed the house in front of me had no second level. It was a two-storey house and it just had no second level. It was just everywhere around us." 

With a two-year-old son at home, Melo said he's thankful he and his crew weren't seriously injured that day. 

Help is available for those still rebuilding

Barrie's mayor, Jeff Lehman, says he's proud of the way the community came together in the weeks after the tornado, but that he sympathizes with those still waiting to return home. 

"It's been a very tough haul for people whose homes were damaged," Lehman said. "It's so hard to find rentals. It's also very hard to find contractors and building supplies, and that's slowed things down."

In the meantime, help is still available through Ontario's Disaster Relief Assistance Program and the Insurance Bureau of Canada. Lehman urged anyone still struggling to contact his office.

The city of Barrie also says it will continue to prioritize building permits for those affected.

But for Barranca, his family just wants to be back in their own home. 

"We've just come to terms with the fact that … it's going to take a long time," he said. 

Barranca's family of ten lived in their damaged home for about a month after the tornado. The house itself was relatively safe, but the family was confined to two rooms and soon had to vacate to allow for repairs.

After that, they spent a few days here and there with different family members before the insurance company could find a big enough rental townhouse for their large family.  

It's been hardest on his children, Barranca said. Ranging in age from two years old to 16, the youngest don't have a backyard to play in and the oldest don't have any space to call their own. 

While progress has been made on their house, with new walls and floors to replace water damaged ones, Barranca's insurance company has said the family may not be able to return until April 2022. 

As he prepared to celebrate the holidays with his family, Barranca said he's just happy that they can all be together. 

"We've been through tough scrapes before and we just have to get through this one," he said.