City officials are hoping for a more rapid filing of engineering reports of the 70 tornado-damaged houses that still have outstanding unsafe orders so that more people can return to their south-end Barrie homes.
“We’re still waiting for another 53 to give us reports,” said Andrea Miller, general manager of infrastructure and growth management for the City of Barrie, indicating that 17 reports have been received so far. “We’re a little concerned that we haven’t got more reports and we’ve been reaching out to the insurance industry.”
In updated numbers provided Thursday, city officials indicated there were 78 unsafe orders issued after many homes in a southeast Barrie neighbourhood were damaged by an EF2 tornado that swept through the area one week ago, with wind speeds reaching more than 200 kilometres per hour.
Initially, it was reported that 75 such orders had been made, but Miller said three had somehow been left off the original spreadsheet documenting the process.
Those engineering reports are largely ordered by the companies insuring those homes and are then filed with the city, which subsequently determines whether or not to lift the unsafe orders.
Eight of the original 78 orders have been lifted, allowing those families to go back to their houses, leaving 70 unsafe orders still in place.
Of those, 15 have been granted access to their properties. The unsafe orders on those homes will remain in place until any repairs deemed necessary are completed.
Two of the 17 can’t be occupied.
“We’re still working with them on the details of what’s happening next,” Miller told BarrieToday. “It will be either stabilize and repair, or it might be one of the ones that will have to be rebuilt. We’re not there yet."
The fees for any building permits required to do repairs will be waived, she added.
On Wednesday, the city received two applications for demolition permits, although Miller said that doesn’t necessarily mean full demolition, but rather could be a gutting of one portion of the home, such as an interior section.
One, in fact, has been permitted access, indicating there will be some reconstruction.
Occupancy hasn’t been granted to the second home, but further details about the demolition application were not available, as both applications are currently being processed.
Miller said city officials have been reaching out to residents affected by last week’s tornado. Building officials will be on site in a trailer at St. Gabriel the Archangel Catholic School on Prince William Way until Friday.
In addition, there’s a dedicated tornado assistance line and the email address — [email protected] — through which staff have been fielding building queries.
City staff are doing “everything we can do to expedite the review of these reports and get the information back… as well as the issuance of permits," Miller said.
Members of the Northern Tornadoes Project at Western University did a survey of the damaged homes as quickly as they could get to the location last week. Wind engineer Greg Kopp said he found deficiencies in some of the homes, which included some of the roofs not being nailed adequately to the walls. Some, he said, had no nails.
However, Miller said the city doesn’t have the jurisdiction to do similar inspections and is relying upon the reports now being filed by engineers.
“We are committed to continue to learn… about what we can do to make buildings stronger and safer,” she said.
Miller said there is a documented approval process to inspect construction with specific, mandated inspections and the city is confident its process meets the obligations of the Building Code Act.
But, she added, the city isn’t in the position to do inspections of the homes for code compliance because it doesn’t have the authority to enter the homes after the fact. In addition, the property owners and insurance companies are receiving reports from engineering companies that are expected to address any concerns.
“Our inspection jurisdiction for repair work is limited to repair and not for broader investigation,” Miller said. “We will be relying on the work of the engineer reports and then reviewing that material and then moving forward with the repair process.
“These homes were built and occupied. They would never be able to get to that stage if they had not passed the inspection.”
