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 story 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. 

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.