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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuron Expositor, 2007-05-23, Page 8Page 8 May 23, 2007 • The Huron Expositor News Storage sheds are flattened, trees are downed during severe winds Tuesday evening From Page 1 he described as "a complete white- out" of rain when he couldn't see the hood of the tractor in front of him. Then, when the tractor started rocking, he wondered if he should jump out and head for a ditch and knew he couldn't have stood up in the wind. "I was sitting in my own little cli- mate -controlled universe but I almost expected to see a cow fly by," he says. When it all died down, Malone says he thought the Storey family had taken refuge in the shed and headed to the flattened building, looking through the wreckage for them but finally found them in the garage of the house. "It gave my heart a little jump to think they might be under that shed. And, my heart froze when I didn't get an answer when I called to them," he says. "We were worried about him - we could just imagine him flying through the air in the tractor. But, we were all fine," says McCall. Since Tuesday night, neighbours flocked to the Storeys helping to clean up the debris from the storage shed and the downed trees on the property. Garrett Van Dieten and Rob McKercher had just returned to the office at the Hensall Co-op's Seaforth grain elevator when they noticed the Canadian flag outside standing straight up in the wind. "There was a dust cloud all around, we heard rattling and then a big crash. And, we saw the tower land on our vehicles," says McKercher. Van Dieten says while the bins at the elevator are still standing, an I- beam pulled out of the ground and swung over the top of the bins, crashing down through the roof of a car and a van parked below, right beside the office. "It was quite the ordeal. We were lucky it didn't come down on the office," says Van Dieten. Art Bolton lost three 130 year-old trees along the laneway to his house on the Winthrop Road. "There was a big wind and a tremendous amount of rain. I wasn't shocked that something hap- pened but I was shocked the trees came down. We were lucky we didn't have any damage to the buildings," he says. His son Carl Bolton further down the road also suffered some storm damage. He lost trees, the 12x16 - foot doors to his barn and shed and the nails on the roof of his barn were all lifted up. "The barn roof was just about ready to go but she hung in," says Carl. The doors and several skids, however, flew into the nearby field and Carl's wife Val says if the three trees that fell behind the house had gone in another direction, they would have crashed through to her dining room. Val adds that she's amazed how the hostas in her garden were twisted and torn by the wind. "And, they were so close to the ground," she says. In Seaforth, the wind, some of it in the shape of whirlwinds or miniature torna- does, caused a few fearful moments for local residents. Phil Duncan, of Artech Signs, was about to leave the office for the day when the door blew open and he looked out to see a tree limb, four feet long and five inches in diame- ter, spinning in the air several feet away. As he reached to close the door, the branch shot forward and slammed into the siding of his building two feet away, creating a four inch hole in the wall. "It shot by me into the wall and it could have clobbered me pretty good. My eyes saw a twister with dust, leaves and branches spinning in the air - winds don't do that," he says. Barb Dalrymple was sitting in the parking lot at the grocery store when she saw the black clouds rolling in and boxes and garbage started flying past her car. "It was like being in the movie Twister. I kept thinking what do I do, where do I go? I was scared and wishing I was home in my base- ment," she says. Barry Mills, public works coordi- nator for Huron East, says the town work crew was busy cleaning up fallen trees and limbs for two days • 4. imecorlre • 4'3 ire , A.% 'I NI'NA VILA amarr a *Nan 14 •YI ws*pa►4�! dlrf,tqwmwd tA.fSiis ill .• Susan Hundertmark photo Above, the vehicles of Rob McKercher and Garrett Van Dieten are pinned under the I-beam at the Hensall Co-op's Seaforth grain elevator while at left, Nate Hoogendoorn and Bob Palin help clear away trees at Art Bolton's farm. after the storm. He says the worst damage occurred in McKillop ward with five hydro trucks disentan- gling trees from hydro lines along Beechwood Line for most of Wednesday. "There were a number of trees across roads and some people helped out the road crews by pulling trees off the road with their own trac- tors. Everyone came together after the storm in the spirit of com- munity," he says. Mills says the municipality will be collecting storm -related debris from the roadside and chipping it during this week only.