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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1990-03-07, Page 7MR 'WHeBUR C. noWlt aln, wow corn ithegy of Btodlulgen died and ieOy at St. Petersburg, Florida en Friday, March 2, 1990, in his 981hear. He Was born in Mcl{illop Township on April 18, 1922, a son of the late Frederick Hoegy and the former Elmore Doerr. On June 20, 1946, he was married to the former Norma Hillebrecht. MMr. Hoegy was the founder of Hoegy Farm Supply in Brodhagen in 1948. He was a member of St. Peters Lutheran Church, .Brodhagen, where he had served on the church board and had taught Sunday School. He was a member and Past President of the Brodhagen Chamber of Commerce, a member of Tudor Lodge No. 141 A.F. & A.M. Mitchell, and the London Chapter of Rose Croix. He was also a member of Seaforth Fidelity Lodge No. 55, I.O.O.F. Seaforth. Surviving besides his wife are two sons, Maynard and his wife Lynn of Brodhagen, and Merle and his wife Rhonda of Brussels; three daughters, Barbara and her husband Randy Smithers of Stratford, Bonnie and her husband John Beimers of Brodhagen, and Beverley and her husband William McCreight of Perth; one brother, Laverne and his wife Greta of Dublin; two sisters, Evelyn Bieber of the Ritz Manor Apts., RR 5 Mitchell, and Leotta and her husband Edwin MacKenzie of Warren, Michigan, as well as 12 grandchildren. He was predeceased by a brother-in-law, Gor- don Kleber. A memorial service was held in Hurricane exper e from page 5 to escape. We tied our glasses onto our heads. And we waited. Our stomachs were too tense to drink the water I had brought in earlier. Time slowed almost to a stand- still. It was maddening, when you were praying for time, and the hurricane, to pass. More than once I checked the clock to see if it was broken. At 7:29 in the morning, the wind abrupt- ly changed to the opposite direction and was now coming straight into our bedroom window, 12 feet away from our closet shelter. We hear a short "whoosh" and could see daylight through the louvres of the closet door. John peeked out and 1 ask- ed him if that was the storm shutters and boards blowing off the bedroom window. He replied that the window was ok, but the roof had just blown off. 1 completely panicked at this point, because we were now sheltered behind a flimsy louvred wood door, with 150 - 200 mph winds com- ing straight across the island, funneling between two mountains and encountering us as the first obstacle. The feeling was like being in the path of a huge, out of control locomotive, unable to get out of its path. Within seconds of the roof leaving, the bedroom window ripped off, frame and all, with our carefully constructed storm shut- ters clinging perfectly to it..and all hell broke loose inside our home. Walls disintegrated. All the furniture was picked up and thrown all over the place. Beams shot through walls like,,.spears through paper. John arid.1 prepared td-`run.for. it.. We figured you couldn't stand up in this wind, so we would roll, pushed by the wind, to our front door, through it, because it had. "gone with the wind", and out onto the porch, where we would be stopped by the wrought iron gate there. John had the key to this gate on a silk necktie going du- ty as a rope around his neck. We would have to unlock and open the gate, and roll down the stairs to the more sheltered con- do below us. Drawing a deep breath we were all ready to go, when we found we could not open the closet door, because a beam had lodged against it. So we waited.The crashes were horrific to hear, and the wind was like a brute force, with gusts hitting the groaning struc- ture like forty foot high boxing gloves. Suddenly we noticed that the plywood and plasterboard ceiling of our little closet shelter was dripping torrents of water and bucking . up and down in the wind. If this little piece of protection fell in, we would be totally exposed to the flying debris. John picked up a little plastic wastebasket we had been using as a "commode" and wedged it on the top shelf of the closet, to hold the ceiling up. It work •:. That half of the ceiling stayed up and kept the rest of from doing any more than dropping about 6 inches. Rainwater poured in on us. For an hour John had to hold on to the closet door, because it opened everytime the wind made the wall blow outward. I held onto his belt from behind him to keep him from being sucked or blown out. With my other. hand I had a death grip on a shelves at the back of the closet. And still we waited. We calculated that the edge of the eye had passed when the roof went, and that we would possibly ven- ture out by noon or a little later. At one point we noticed the floor was also begin- ning to buck a little, and I began knock- ing on the back wall of the closet to see if we could break through into the den behind it. It seemed to solid, and we couldn't tell what shape the den was in...maybe worse than this. Time dragged cruelly by as we cringed and waited. At around 11 AM we heard banging, and then voices calling our names. It was our neighbours, who had lived in the Condo next to ours, also a penthouse unit. They were using a hammer or something to break open our still locked wrought iron gate. I cannot describe the joy I felt at hearing their voices. I don't know if I've ever been so glad to see anyone as much as them at just that moment. The two boys (in their twenties) and their dad could only move a huge beam a few inches to open the living room/bedroom door a bit, but they were able to squeeze through and clear the closet door to free us from our shelter -turned -prison. We ran towards the front door, and I had a quick glimpse of the house. What a shocking scene. Everything had been smashed, and was thrown around and heaped into piles of rubble. Most plasterboard walls looked melted, and glass and broken furniture were everywhere. We all ran to a storage area underneath the above ground end of the swimming pool, and climbed behind a wall our frlends had made of bags of con- crete found there. Many people are killed in a hurricane when they try to run for anther shelter. Being trapped probably saved us. Our Pasadena Park, Florida, on Sunday; Marled 4. Friends will be received at the Lockhart Funeral Home, Mitchell, on Wednesday from 2-4 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. Funeral ser- vices will be held at St. Peters Lutheran Church, Brodhagen, on Thursday with'Rev. Bob Book officiating, Spring interment will be in St. Peters Lutheran Cemetery. Memorial donations to St. Peters Lutheran Church Church or the Kidney Foundation would be appreciated as expressions of sympathy. TOLEDO BE_U.ERMANN Toledo Ella Louisa Beuernnarut of Bishop Street in Cambridge died Thursday, March 1, 1990 at her residence. She was 83. The former Toledo Ella •Louise Miller, she was born in Elma Township, and was a daughter of the late Henry C. Miller and the former Bertha Hollatz. Mrs. Beuerman was a member of St. Peter's Lutheran Church in Cambridge, the Women's Auxiliary, the Wellesley United Church bell ringers and was an executive member of the W.C. Woods Manor Association. She is survived by three daughters, Rose and her husband Wilber Chambers of Cam- bridge, Joanne and her husband Douglas Colbourne of Toronto, and Mayda and her iences rR husband Ron :&.ins rof Waterloo. Also, surviving Are: one brother Gordon Mrller of Mitche l; erght ,grandchildren; and flia-greatrgrandriendten.six Mrs, Beuermattn was Predeceased by her husband Leslie un 1953 and by one slater Freida. The fareceived friends at the Bar- thel.1 meral: Home` m Cambridge and then at the Loekbart,•Funeral Home in Meilen. A funeral service was. held at St. Peter's Lutheran Church, Brodhagen. The Reverend Bob Book and Reverend Norris Huebner officiated. Spring interment will be in St. Peter's Lutheran Cemetery, Brodhagen. Flowerbearer was Shelley Chambers. Pallbearers were John Chambers, Debbie Woodley, Scott Colbourn, Kent Colbourn, Sandy _Scoins_and_ Nancy Scoins - all grandchildren. L iLLIF; BELLE MOORS Lille Belle 112oore, formerly of Seaforth, died at the Huronview Home for the Aged, Clinton, on Sunday, March 4, 1990. She was 93. The daughter of the late George Strong and the former Mary Kyle, Seaforth, Mrs. Moore is predeceased by her husband, Harvey Moore, and by a brother, William G. Strong. She is survived by brother-in-law, Davis Moore, and his wife Deane. Also surviving are nieces and nephews, Ken and Lisa Moore, Bob and Marg Beuermann, Margurite and Reg Hocking, Beverley and THE HURQN. EXp,QSIT®R, MARCH 7, 1990 ;- 7A Hd Jaen, .Jack and Carol Moore, Ann and John ,Curlew andMavis Moore, Jr, Friends were received at .the .Wbitney- RibeY Funeral Home,;Seaforth, on Monday.' , and Tuesda _ altetftoan, March ,5 and 6, Funeral settces Were held on Tuesday afternoon at 2 p,m. spring: interment' Egmondvidle .cemetery. Expressions of sympathy may be made to the Eg ondville United Church Badding Fund. ONE-MAN CHEERING SECTION - This unflappable Seaforth hornblower was the biggest fan - in heart, anyways - that the Seaforth Legion Pee Wee team had in the stands on Friday night. Elliott photo. neighbours, however, lived because they ran for it just before both our roofs went. The identical bedroom closet to ours in their home was completely destroyed, and a water heater crashed down into it. If they had stayed in their closet, they would have been badly injured or killed. (there was no water heater above our closet) We spent the rest of the day watching the wind and rain from our makeshift bunker, and barely cared about the rats ' that kept coming in to seek shelter with us. All of us were exhibiting different signs of shock. 1 did manage to get the first laugh out of everyone, because of how prepared 1 was. In the first stages of the hurricane I hadgathered useful stuff into the closet, and towards morning 1 had fill- ed my pockets and t -shirt front, ready to run. I looked like one of those clowns that keeps pulling amazing things out of their pockets. I had tied a t -short and a stuffed bear (the first one John had ever given me) to me to protect my chest from glass. There were also two English tourist girls there, and when one was cold, I pulled a short satin kimono out of my shirt front. Someone else was cold and wet, so 1 gave them John's velour bathrobe that had wrapped itself around me as we ran from the closet. Another person had a headache, and 1 pulled a bottle of Tylenol 3 out of a pocket. Later one man injured his foot and I had Poly-sporin ointment and band-aids in another pocket! Out friends kept mak- ing dashed into their ruined home to dig out goodies like a bottle of vodka (which we drank straight from the bottle), or _buck .F.d!'d,,a.. i ighbourr. from down the hill ventured up to find us. His house had only half gone,and since the kitchen was left, he invited us down for hot beef stew. What a miracle that meal seemed. The rain didn't stop for two days. We saw our roof, by the way, still in one piece, on a hillside a mile away. Life after the hurricane has been very tough. In Toronto, its hard for you to im- agine the extreme hardships and health hazards incurred when there's no water, power, communication, supplies or transportation (the roads were blocked for two days by fallen trees). At first, day to day survival took all our thoughts and energies. Eight of us lived together in a one bedroom apartment down the hill from our building. It was the only apartment that survived intact. (Unknown to us dur- ing the hurricane, the condos below ours were totally wrecked as well).There would have been no shelter there. There was no electricity (indeed, we just got power this week...four months later). Even worse..there was not water. Trees had been uprooted by the hundreds of thousands, and many broke water pipes as they went back. Lack of water is a serious problem. The first day after the hurricane we had to find drinking water. We went up to our ruined building and drained water from all the hot water tanks. For weeks we carried stagnant, stinking pool water down the huge hill to flush our toilet. We bathed in the still wild waves of the ocean, which was murky and filled with debris. We made trips in the car to a natural spring towards the north of the island and filled cleaned out plastic wastebuckets with clean water. By the time you drove the tortuous curved road back home, over hall the water had been spilled. We had to boil water for over a month, and put chlorine tablets into it. We could only eat canned foods, as there was no refrigeration, and all fresh fruits and vegetables were destroyed. hi fact, there wasn't a leaf left on this once "Emerald Isle". We had to line up for hours to get gas for the car. There was no gas shortage (yet) but the pumps that survived the storm had to be operated manually, and each customer could get. 5. gallons only. Wehadto search for kerosene for the one or two lamps we had. Food was a concern, because the port pier had been destroyed ( a huge concrete pier for freighters). The airport had been destroyed. There was no communication with the outside world for weeks. Our parent got word that we were alive 10 days after the hurricane. Montserrat sustained the worst damage in the Caribbean known in the last hundred years, but because it is so little known and so small, it was overshadowed by U.S. news reports of the damage to St. Croix, and to South Carolina. (90% of the buildings in Montserrat were severely damaged, and in the week after the hur- ricane it was estimated that there were 10,000 homeless). Only 11 people were kill- ed that awful night, but with a resident population of about 11,000 that a lot. Many people are still living in terrible conditions. One woman we are trying to help has five children and her aged mother living in a 10 x 10 shack made of plywood that she scrounged. There is one bed in it. She has plenty of clothes, because most churches and organizations send clothing. She cooks on- a tiny wood fire on the ground and has one pot and an old beaten up kettle We • • have help here, but a house is what she, and thousands other here need. We have applied to the Rotary Club on her behalf, and if "approved" she will be given building materials to make a more decent. home. She will have to find the labour herself. Hopefully the community and relatives (and John and 1) can rebuild her home. I don't know how you could help, although your offer of help was much ap- preciated, and help was (is) needed, but I have no idea what to tell you. Many peo- ple sent clothing (easy to collect and to ship). The problem now is housing. There is a shortage of building supplies and labour here. Everyone who can pour ce- ment, or use a hammer is doing so, and some relief materials, like wood and galvanized roofing have been received, but much remains to be done. If you wish, you could contact Rotary Club headquarters in Toronto and ask them to call the Rotary Club in Montserrat, perhaps help could be organized. Or you could get people to send money to the Rotary Club.They are using money donated to buy building materials for those who would help themselves and build a house, if only they had the building materials. The president of the Rotary Club here is Mr. Carl Lewis, and the telephone operator could advise of a phone number of way to reach him. The Rotary Club here is asking donations of only money, because the government is charg ing a 5% fee on donated goods, money most relief organizations.cannot afford. Many countries have'" t,workmaeri, • till/Pr Mid' the US 'se eldbtricai treayd8 complete with trucks,and they have been working 6 days a week, 14 hours a day to restore electricity to the island. Almost all lines and poles were down. Canada sent teams of military electricians who slept on the floor of the ruined airport while they repaired it and got it back in service. The hospital is in terrible shape. The roof is off of 3/4 of the building. Nurses and patients are using umbrellas to protect themselves from the rain. Hospital supplies and equip- ment are very scarce. Any person or medical organization that wishes to try to help could contact Dr. Lewis who is Chief Surgeon of the hospital. Again, as the Montserrat Operator. If this were closer to Canada, the type of help that the Men- nonites offer after a disaster would be great. They seem to arrive at the disaster site, complete with tools and materials, and just start rebuilding. The Salvation Ar- my is building small wooden shacks, but progress is slow due to available labour. There is a Red Cross here, and a Peace Corp. volunteer or two. Perhaps these groups could use help. There are many tales of heroism and self-sacrifice from this disaster. The way Montserratians have responded to the crisis has made us more sure than ever that we chose the right place to make our home. The people are resourceful and hardworking, and the sound of hammers was heard only one of two days after the storm stopped. Our home was almost totally destroyed, and all contents ruined. We are now living in a lovely rented home, getting deeper in debt as we pay a mortgage on a destroyed condo, and rent. The insurance company has not yet advance the funds for interum living expenses. We had to buy a gas powered generator to run lights and the fridge, and run our drills when we do floors. We have had to rebuild our warehouse, as the wind knocked down one complete cement block wall (about 40' long by 15' high). We have had the most in- credibly frustrating time getting our raw materials in from Miami. Many items were "lost" in shipping. However, we also have the quickest start you can imagine for a . flooring business. Most --home had vinyl tiles (which lifted when they got water soaked) or ceramic tiles, which shat- tered when flying objects hit them. So, we are very popular, and cannot keep up with the demand for our more durable floors. We now employ 12 people, and have a warehouse full of raw materials. Last week we got electricity in the warehouse and our rented home. However, we still cannot rebuild our 75% destroyed condo, because the insurance co. has not yet paid us, and our phone went dead when we got power. There are very few phones working on the island. We get up at about 5:30 AM and Start working at 7 A.M.. Official quitting time is 3 PM, but we often must keep working on a floor in- stallation till much later (6 PM is com- mon, with a few nights of 7 or even 9 PM). We have worked the last three weekends, so our original thoughts. on a "slower pace of life" have certainly not materialized. Our friends still tease us be reminding us of our words before the Hur- eke, "in the pool every day by 4 with a BUT...We love it here, and the hurricane only made us more determined to,make'a suecess of our business here. The people u are charming and basically honest and hardworking. They are generally very religious. The scenery is terrific, and with the exception of a little wind like Hugo, the weather is much nicer than in Canada right now. I will close now (after ONLY .9 pages.!!!) 1 hope you don't mind a "word process- ed letter"...I'm so thrilled to have electrici- ty that I'm using every electric gizmo we've had in storage for so long. This is being written on an Apple Mclntosh...and the only printer ribbon 1 have is red. They don't sell printer ribbons for Apple Im- agewriter printers (or any other for that matter!) on the island, so this will have to do. Again thank you for your letter. 1 would love a reply...though I don't expect anyone to be as long-winded as 1 am! I'm sorry we never got together...but this has been the most hectic year of my never a dull moment life! If you would ever wish to visit Montser- rat, John and 1 would love to play host to you (and your husband). The island is already getting green and beautiful again, and it is a very charming place. I will say goodnight now...before I fill another page. Love, Joan (Hoover)McKenzie VANASTRA RECREATION CENTRE March Break Swim: Times MARCH 1247 1:00 .41:30 p.m; (EXCEPT GLQSEpTHURSDAY) Plus Regular Times As Usual BE Sales Service Installation Fria Estimates • Barn Cleaners '• Stabling • Bunk Feeders Donald G. Ives R.R. 2 Blyth Brussels 887-9024 Storewide Clearance Sale on all ®11PIFFIlT Appliances Drysdale Major Appliances Hensall Ontario The Place to Buy Appliances 262-2728 Open Dally, Closed Fri. nights till April HURON SUPERIOR MEMORIALS ESTABLISHED OVER 60 YEARS Servang Seaforth nand a00 of Huron County ii111Cs':ASL FALCONEit 1153 I -UGI% STREET, CLINTOi. ,I i0tasei 482-9441 Itesoi 482-3664 Evening appeentmerote ovullrhle THE HEAT IS 0 "Sayfieldis Original Fashion Store" The hottest store in Bayfield is reopening its doors Saturday, March 10 with a sizzling array of new styles and dazzling new colours. Open weekends until May 1 then 7 days a week Open Friday thru Monday, Easter weekend Main Streets Bayfield 565-2588 WE'RE MOVING... The Workers' Compensation Board's London Regional Office will be located in the Talbot Centre, effective Monday, March 5th, 1990. 148 Fullerton Street London, Ontario NPA 5P3 If you have any questions, call us... (519) 663-2331 1-800-265-4752 TOGETHER WE'RE GOING TO WORK. Workers' Commission Compensation des accidents Board du travail