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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1970-10-01, Page 8001iSitICH SIONA.L ST4It THUR$D.A'S OCTOBER.11. 97(1, . ..a..,..., r rr, a Looking tnrough a gaping hole in the roof of the dairy barn on the farm of Alfred and Bert Twisted steel and splinteredboards were once the roof Qf thoi main barn on the of the roof missing and steel torn from the sides. Only thousand chickens were DykStr`a"the taxi gted-and"sh'edded`remains-of-the-f?ykstra's-silo-cambeieert--11Was-a-hitge-piece-of •--------D-ykstra..brothers' -farm—In._the._background-the_.chicken_barn..ean.,be_seswith pan_ rodc.d out through the roof: the -silo that tore the hole in gte barn roof: r. arms take brunt of stor Everyone who went through the violent storm .that ripped. • through the Clinton district on " Saturday afternoon has his own story. Clinton . News -Record editor Keith Roulston tells what` it, ,was like during and immediately after the storm. BY KEITH ROULSTON Anyone who lived along North Street South when the tornado passed through thea Clinton area on Saturday knew at once- there would be heavy damage. The sky - blackened until ' it looked more like late evening than 3.30 in the afternoon. Then the rain and the wind hit, slashing down through the trees, hammering windows like hail stones and cutting visibility to a few feet. The giant maples in our front yard twisted and pitched. They tugged at their roots like dogs straining their leashes, but they held. At the height of. the storm the reporter in me began to show. I got my camera out and a went out on the front porch to ' ,try to get a picture of the storm, but it was so dark" I couldn't even get a reading on my light meter. - The storm barely let up when the ,, telephone rang and a neighbour passed on the word that two es, ogre, down in .the middle of the street just in front of her"home. I went out to take a picture but it was still raining'W, so hard I could hardly focus the camera and I retreated back into the house to wait for the .rain .to let up a little A few minutes later another neighbour reporterd a�wire down at the corner of North and Joseph' and, ' after •--.- -trying unsuccessfully to contact the PUC, I. put on some old shoes and a waterproof coat, grabbed the camera and dashed to the car. With Joseph and North both blocked off it meant a trip around the block, butan attempt to come up Alma to Mary and then up town was also thwarted by another tree and some more wires blocking the intersection of the two streets. After another ,backtracking around the block it was an attempt to get through on Huron Street. It too was blocked 'but already, only about 10 minutes, ,after the storm, the PUC was busy clearing trees and Wet.. while the police directed traffic around the scene. I parked the car and reported` the downed trees and fallen wires to Sargeant Leroy Oesch. We went in his car to investigate then toured the. rest of the town to see, what. damage had resulted. On Erie a tree was upturned by the roots. At Rattenbury and North some branches were -down*- but not blocking the road. Most. of the serious damage seemed to be . confined to the west side of town with only leaves and small branches down on the east side. Returning to Huron Street we took a tour out into the country at the west end and saw the tremendous damage '.to the Dykstra. farms. We went back to report the various trouble spots to the ,PUC and Public Works crews. I- picked up my. car and headed to the office to pick up another camera, flash and some. more film then headed for the scene of the worst damage; the Alfred and Bert Dykstra farm. By the time I got there, friends and neighbours had already gathered. They got to work at once doing what they. could. In the dairy barn they started clearing away some of the rubble caused when a huge chunk. of the silo came crashing down through the roof into the stable. They worked to repair • the milking system so the cows could be milked that evening. Besides the damage to the silo and the dairy barn, • the entire roof had been lifted off the main barn and deposited. in. bits and pieces over several -acres, . Parti of it had apparently. crushed a car belonging to another brother, Iichapl, ,.-.ho•' lived- -across _ -.the _ road. Part of the roof of a chicken barn eras also gone, along with about 1,000 three -week-old baby chicks that were sucked out of the building by the wind. At Michael Dykstra's farm across the road, the damage was perhaps not so . hedvy but if anything, it was more tragic. One of the farm',s three large barns was now withoiit a roof. It had been filled with .two -day-old chicks. Now many were spread over as wide an area as what was once the roof. The rest of the 10,000 chicks were doomed to* die from drowning and cold: . It took little more than an hour to get two rolls of fm, shooting constantly to rec rd the damage before darkness set in or the workers cleaned up. - By the time I arrived back at the house about 5 p.m.- the cleanup crews in town were working to remove the last remaining tree that blocked. North Street. It had—been . an unbelievable hour. .Workers begin the cleanup inside the dairy barn on - Dykstra brothers' farm. A * sictini'n of the rOof of the the reeently-built barn' was caved in when parts of the -nearby silo fell. t 84 o'ort.Otikbinit. Dykstrea faarwrl rook like a pletUre of an aircraft crash, as ttrev lir in 1 field t 100 dards'fr rn the barn A' dry tl. the tangled . steel, and broke Barber* were once this roof of a ihicke1ftedt from the storm a n and . r 'Teri ' ♦ . -; ... ,, .... � A ;. .,. .: !' -. p. may} yyy��� y,� followed. rat Wld LII {7: Vim.. inearl+ a 'new barn, on Mtchae$ DVkstra's farm:, "'Teri Ootis and baby