32 seconds.
That’s how long it took for a tornado to turn the downtown Main Street area of Brighton into a disaster zone. And it all happened, ironically, on Friday, July 13, 1973.
And, with the 50th anniversary of arguably the largest and most destructive weather event in the history of Brighton next summer, Brighton Council voted in favour at its Jan. 17 council meeting of naming a task force and providing terms of reference for it in order to commemorate the day when the tornado ripped out trees along the downtown area, while also destroying the town hall and numerous storefronts.
Brighton Mayor Brian Ostrander said one of the items the task force could look into is the refurbishment of the bell from the former town hall that was destroyed in the tornado.
“One of the things that stands out to me, there is a fountain in Memorial Park (where the town hall once stood) that has been turned into a flower garden with the bell that was in the original town hall that sits atop of that. Perhaps the refurbishment of that centrepiece would be in order,” said Mayor Ostrander.
According to excerpts from the book ‘They Desired a Better Country’ from J.W.D. (Scotty) Broughton, the tornado touched down in downtown Brighton at 7:30 p.m. that fateful day and in those 32 seconds of furious winds “the once beautiful village resembles a battleground”.
“The Main Street of Brighton, noted for its avenue of maple trees, became a tangled mess of foliage as the once stately trees fell like a set of dominoes”.
“The Town Hall, which a group of citizens wanted to preserve and which the council had decided to raze, felt the full impact of the storm and collapsed”.
“The Smith residence next door lost its roof. Telephone lines, hydro lines were down, and two homes on Chapel Street lost their roofs.”
The book goes on to chronicle the exemplary community spirit that went into the massive clean-up efforts with “every chainsaw in Brighton was in use as the Main Street was made passable by midnight”.
“Women of Brighton Township brought food to the Fire Hall and set up an emergency kitchen to feed the large number of friends who worked without any hope of reward to restore the village. The entire council of Brighton Township, led by their Reeve, Arnold Boes, cleared the eastern block of Chapel Street, using their own tools and machinery. The Legion stayed open all night for the out-of-town volunteers,” said a passage from the history book.
Miraculously, there were no fatalities and only one injury reported from the tornado.
“No fires were reported, no looting took place. The biggest headache was the curious people from outside Brighton, having heard the news on the radio, coming to see what was happening and hampering the work of those engaged in reconstruction,” said an excerpt from ‘They Desired a Better Country’.
A celebration of the Brighton tornado is planned for the summer of 2023.
