The Rural Voice, 1996-07, Page 22Agriculture and weather are
close allies and sometimes
enemies. Most farmers are very
familiar with weather
idiosyncrasies in their own area, as
sowing and haying and harvesting are
definitely • "weather-related
activities", at least to the farmer's
way of thinking.
Rural life is characteristically
predictable in its cycles and seasons.
Weather is a major variance, and
once in a while it breaks the norm.
Such an event occurred on Saturday,
April 20, 1996.
Ed and Eleanor Saunders have
farmed on Grey County Road 4 for
over 36 years. Their family dairy
business is made up of two farms
across the road from each other. Ed
and Eleanor live on one farm; their
sons Bruce and Brian and their
families live on the other farm.
For years the Saunders family has
worked hard and enjoyed the normal
routine of rural life. But that
Saturday, April 20, who could have
known or predicted the force of
nature that was to cruelly invade this
peaceful farming community?
Ed was still outside and Eleanor
was watching television, waiting
supper for him. She had noticed the
graphics on the TV screen warning of
thunderstorms. Then the hydro went
off. Eleanor looked out the window.
She saw a large swirling funnel cloud
and two smaller ones heading right
for the house.
"As it was coming up our back 50,
I saw dirt in the air. I figure now that
it was debris from McKenzies' barn,"
she says. "I started to head for the
cellar stairs out in the woodshed. I
looked out again and our six-year-old
driving shed just disappeared!"
As she hesitated in the kitchen,
between the door to the woodshed
and the kitchen window, suddenly the
windows all blew in.
"The wind took the frames'and all
right out of the wall. It just left the
casing," she continues. "Everything
was knocked across the room. There
was even glass embedded in the
ceiling!"
"The stone wall woodshed has
stood at the back of the house for 140
years. It would take a lot of
bulldozers to knock it down. That
tornado just laid that stone wall right
down on the ground. It sure was an
18 THE RURAL VOICE
In tornado country it pays to keep
AN EYE ON THE SKY
Survivors and weather experts tell how to take
precautions against violent weather
Story and photos by Cathy Laird
A farm near Williamsford, rented by a Mennonite family, lies in ruins, the barn
demolished, the house badly damaged after the tornadoes of April 20,1996.
angry wind! It was as if it was saying,
'I'm going right in there!'"
By this time, the outside door and
the roof were gone off the woodshed.
"Before I could get across to the
kitchen door to close it into the
woodshed, big branches fell into the
kitchen through the open door,"
Eleanor continues.
"I remember looking out to see if
the barn across the road was O.K. By
that time, our heifer barn was down,
but across the road, the other barn
was still standing. Then I think I
blacked out."
"I can't imagine what I would
have done differently unless I would
have gotten to the cellar quicker. If
we'd had a cellar stairway inside the
house, I could have. The stairs are out
in the woodshed."
"This type of weather is certainly
not normal for our area, so people
may not be prepared for it," she says.
"A couple of barns were blown down
about 70 years ago in the area. And
there was no warning on TV about
tornadoes!"
"It sure didn't last long. I'm just
glad that the hydro was off. It was a
real blessing that there was no fire!"
The Saunders are staying in a
trailer on the farm across the road.
The stone house did not move but the
roof on the brick home lifted up 3/4
inch. Walls upstairs and downstairs
received wind and water damage. The
windows are being repaired as well.
Eleanor figures it will be the end of
June or early July before she and Ed
can move back into their home.
"You can't visualize it unless you
see it," she states. "It was an ugly,
angry wind. Just to see everything
fall down around you ... The best
part is that no one was hurt."
Eleanor received several cuts
from flying glass when the
windows were sucked in. None
of the cattle in the heifer barn
were injured. Eleanor and her family
are grateful that there were no serious
after-effects. But Winston, the golden
Cocker Spaniel who was in the house
with Eleanor during the tornado, still
trembles if strong winds blow.
"If this kind of thing ever happens
again, I hope that everyone goes to