Lakeshore Advance, 2011-08-31, Page 1MatLACIIIAN
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SALVATION ARMY
OODERICH
TORNADO RELIEF
This Friday Night
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the shore. See Page 9 for related story and photos.
Tornado warnings and a light show
Lynda Hillman -Replay
Lakeshore Advance
A spate of tornado warnings and
sightings left the London region on
edge Wednesday night mere days after
a killer twister ravaged historic
Goderich. The hour long light show
that took over the skies, thunder, rain
and wind all attributed to a night filled
with anxiety.
On what turned out to be a wild
night, four tornadoes reportedly
touched down, none packing the
punch of the deadly storm that ravaged
the Huron County town on Sunday.
Just the threat of a repeat stoked anx-
iety levels for much of the evening,
leaving at least one resident in
Goderich cowering in his basement as
thunderstorms lashed the area and
skies turned midnight black hours
early.
"It was not used, but it was ready,"
Shewfelt said.
Sunday's twister struck minutes after
an official warning and Wednesday,
Environment Canada was much
quicker to issue alerts, posting a tor-
nado watch at 11 a.m. and upgrading
that to a warning just after 630 p.m.
Jessica said was staying at the Pinery
Park when she got a call from her
mother who was worried about the
warning a tornado could hit there. The
camper said those in tents were asked
to move to the Park Store or told to go
to Grand Bend to a hotel. As hotels
booked up, many did not know where
to go.
At the municipal level CA() John
Byrne said they are in the process of
writing a report to the Emergency Plan-
ning Committee with a recommenda-
tion that they investigate the installa-
tion of such a warning system.
'Ihe Grand Bend Legion is the evac-
uation centre for this area but Byne
says they generally don't declare an
evacuation centre as a place of refuge
for a storm like this as no one can pre-
dict where, if there were a tornado, it
would hit. There is no sense in sending
people to the Legion ahead of tirne
only to find it Is ground zero for a
touchdown. The key is for people to
".Shelter in Place" basements,
crawl spaces or interior bathroorn etc.
there is some advantage to keeping
people spread out rather than concen-
trated in one location.
'Ihe municipality is working with the
Pinery Park to make sure the Emer-
gency Response Plans dovetail with
each other.
Last Wednesday the Municipality
received "Red Alerts" from Emergency
Management Ontario and that was cir-
culated to Council and the staff team.
The staff team was put on alert to mon-
itor the storm and to initiate appropri-
ate actions depending on what occurs.
Byrne said the scope of the storm was
so vast and variable it was difficult to
establish if the storm would actually hit
us.
"We have tried to stress throughout
of Emergency Response education
CONTINUED > PAGE 2