Two years after Barrie's devastating tornado, some still suffer emotional scars

Nearly two years after a tornado ripped apart her backyard and caused nearly $75,000 worth of property damage, Christine Corelli-Gowan's home in Barrie, Ont. is looking as good as new. 

But some lasting effects aren't physical, including the way Corelli-Gowan said she now responds to adverse weather. 

"The past few weeks of weather have been a little bit unnerving, where I've come to the point where I'm rushing outside and grabbing things and bringing them in and then questioning, Should I put it back out or not?'" Corelli-Gowan said. 

This weekend marks two years since the tornado levelled parts of Barrie, displacing more than a hundred residents and causing approximately $100 million in property damage. But while much of the physical damage has been repaired, some in the community are still feeling lasting emotional and mental effects.

'No alert was going to bypass me this time'

Corelli-Gowan was at home when the tornado hit. It was a normal afternoon, though she noticed her son's dog seemed anxious.

"And then, all of a sudden, I heard something hit my window. And when I looked I saw nothing. I could not see anything. It was all white," she said. 

She yelled to her children to go down to the basement, and she says it was only once they were down there that a tornado alert went off on her phone. 

In the months that followed, Corelli-Gowan was able to access counselling, and credits that with helping her to mostly recover from the lingering fear. 

"Every time there was a little wind or a tree moved a little certain way, I was looking out all the windows. No alert was going to bypass me this time," she said. "I was going to be ahead of that alert."

What research says about disasters and mental health

Dr. Vincent Agyapong has studied the effects of natural disasters on mental health, including following the devastating wildfire in Fort McMurray in 2016. The head of the department of psychiatry at Dalhousie University and the chief of psychiatry for Nova Scotia Health Central Zone said for most people, mental health effects wane over time following a disaster.

"But certainly, there's a significant proportion of people whose mental health issues will persist years even after the event," said Agyapong.

In interviewing Fort McMurray residents, Agyapong said he and his fellow researchers looked at a range of factors, such as support from the government, the Red Cross, insurance, and friends and family, as well age, gender, employment status and exposure to images of the disaster afterwards. 

"The only significant factor we found that protected people's psychological wellbeing was those who reported they received absolute support from family, friends and members of the community," he said. 

Despite living in Barrie for more than two decades, Corelli-Gowan said she'd never felt very connected to the community. After the tornado, however, she said "the sense of community was unreal." 

She said connecting with other residents as they navigated the aftermath and dealt with insurance claims was a big help. 

"Even though you discuss it with family and friends, if they haven't been through it, they don't understand it," Corelli-Gowan said.  

'Never had an anxious bone in my body before' 

Connie Barszcz lives just north of Barrie, in Elmvale. But two years ago, she found herself in the tornado's path of destruction. She was dropping items off at the house of a friend who wasn't home, when the weather suddenly turned and she had only her car to turn to for shelter. 

"Everything was sort of like being inside of a cotton ball. You can't see anything when you're in the middle of that. There was so much debris and the only thing I could hear was when something was hitting my car and smashing into it," Barszcz said. 

Following that terrifying experience, she says she experienced mental health issues for the first time. 

"People kept saying to me, 'Oh your must be so happy to be alive.' And I said, 'Well I'm grateful that I'm alive but I'm not happy, and I don't know why. I don't know what's wrong with me,'" Barszcz said.

"I didn't realize that it was depression and anxiety. I never had an anxious bone in my body before."

Barszcz said it took her months to get therapy covered through her health benefits. After 13 months of seeing a therapist, she said she's feeling progress in overcoming her anxiety. 

At this time last year, she was still in a very bad place. But for this Saturday, Barszcz has filled her schedule so that she'll have less time to think about that day two years ago. 

"It will never be forgotten, but I really feel like this two year mark has gotten me a lot further."