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HomeMy WebLinkAboutGoderich Signal Star, 2011-08-24, Page 24Wednesday. August 24, 2011 • Signal -Star 23 rings everyone is sure of in n Goderich - it sounded in and It happened fast, es after a deadly tornado ed downtown Goderich, td firefighters were getting k onlookers off the street, earnings fall on deaf ears as came out to survey the dam - the tornado that claimed and injured several other Officials on loudspeakers of gas leaks and ordered people to evacuatethe area. The smell of gas was in the ail. The approach to Courthouse Square showed a barren Courthouse Park; nearly every tree was down, bare trunks splintered and sagging. An upturned food wagon sat empty as people scoured the park for anyone who could be injured. Inside the local Coffee Culture, people stood far away from the win- dows, as furniture, floor tiles and windows_ were blown away. "It sounded like a freight train," Jim Rutledge said. "It couldn't have been more than 30 seconds." Gary Johnston and his family took shelter in the Bargain Store one block away, "I couldn't close the door" he said in disbelief. "Not with all my strength." The windows of the store, and so many others, are simply gone. "That woman over there," some- body says pointing to an emergency vehicle in the middle of the street. "Got a two-by-four in the chest:'. Nobody knew if she was OK. Kris Reilly was at the KFC on Huron Rd. near the entrance to downtown when the tornado hit. 1 saw the dark skies and got.a real bad feeling," he said. "Everyone in the store got to the back." When he came out, it was a differ- ent town. "The roof of the church is f---ing gone ... The trees are f ---king gone!" People congregated outside what remained of the Burger Bar, the roof and walls of neighbouring apart- ments part- m ents had collapsed. Brent Lawrence was in one of those apartments. "The windows blew in, he said. "And then the building fell on my car." It took him 15 minutes to get out of the two-storey building. Down the street, firefighters checked homes for injured. Power lines were strewn across most arte- rial roads downtown. Upper floors around the Square are open wide, facades are crum- bled. Most shops on _the southeast side of downtown are windowless, Alex Mosher was driving down- town when the storm spun his car out of control and into a light pole. "The car was totalled," he said. He got away with only a few minor scrapes: gushes from the Sifto Evaporator Plant on Maitland Road. Most of the plant was destroyed. The upper floor of Coffee Culture is torn apart.