A Vaughan school damaged in last week's tornado won't be able to open on Sept. 8 as scheduled.

An F2 tornado hit St. Peter's Catholic School on Aug. 20.

"The roof itself was lifted and therefore that caused leaks. And then there was interior water damage that resulted," Chris Cable of the York Catholic Disrtict School Board told CTV Toronto on Friday.

"The damage is not just on the floors ... There are a lot of desk and shelving units in the school and they also received some water damage."

The tornado's force tossed a heavy, roof-mounted ventilation unit onto the grounds some distance from the school. After the twister passed, the school parking lot was littered with broken glass, lumber and other debris.

"There were three of the ventilation units that just blew off the roof and we've never found them," Cable said. "They could be in a farmer's field somewhere, in a stream or lake."

It's estimated the school won't be ready to re-open until Oct. 13. Crews are hard at work to repair the damage.

In the meantime, two nearby schools will accommodate St. Peter's 400 junior kindergarten to Grade 8 students: St. Francis of Assisi and Immaculate Conception. The board hopes it can keep the various grades together.

Damage survey

Meanwhile, a Vaughan city official said there's still no overall damage tally from the tornado.

An estimated 600 homes suffered some degree of damage, with 38 of those being severely damaged. A handful of those homes might have to be completely demolished and rebuilt from scratch.

To help in the damage estimation process, the city of Vaughan is asking those affected by the tornado to complete a provincial survey by next Wednesday.

"Under the Ontario Disaster Relief Assistance Program, the survey will be used to determine if provincial financial assistance will be made available. This is a preliminary survey and should not be considered to be a claim," it said in a news release.

The completed forms should be hand-delivered to the following locations:

  • Vaughan Civic Centre: 2141 Major Mackenzie Drive, inquiry counter
  • Father Ermanno Bulfon Community Centre: 8141 Martin Grove Rd., Woodbridge
  • Maple Community Centre, 10190 Keele Street, Maple

The city attempted to hand-deliver the forms to affected businesses, homeowners and tenants, but said people can picke them up from the above locations, download them from the city's website, or call Access Vaughan at 905-832-2281.

"Questions regarding the survey should be directed to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing. Contact information for the ministry is included at the back of the survey," it said.

Tornado tally

Environment Canada has determined there were eight confirmed tornadoes on Aug. 20, with two probable ones.

One probably tornado occurred southeast of Bancroft, while another occurred on a path that ran from Arnstein to Restoule to North Bay.

The confirmed tornadoes ran in size from F0 to F2 on the Fujita scale. An F2 tornado produces winds of between 180 and 250 kilometres per hour.

The tornado that hit Vaughan was an F2. It ran for several kilometres and was about 50 metres wide at the base.

The only fatality from the burst of wild weather was Owen MacPherson. The 11-year-old boy was at a day camp being held at a conservation area north of Durham in Grey County.

With a report from CTV Toronto's Michelle Dube