Feature Article August 14, 2002
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Commentary - Environment Canada underestimates damageby David BrisonSince our first report on the storm in North Frontenac (Wicked winds ravage the Cloyne area August 7), the News has been trying to gather more information on the areas affected and the amount of damage done. We had been expecting that our follow-up would be assisted by an aerial survey done by two Environment Canada scientists who flew over the area the day after the storm hit. We received a preliminary copy of the report on Monday, August 12.
In the meantime, we continued to update our information on where and how much damage was done. Twin Pines Resort on Mississagagon Lake, owned by Dave and Pat Storms (aptly named) was perhaps the hardest-hit resort we have visited. They estimate that 75 to 100 trees came down. One large tree landed directly on their house; many of their 19 cottages were hit; six cars were damaged, with three of them totalled; and electricity was still out a week after the storm. Fortunately, nobody was hurt.
Twin Oaks Resort on the eastern edge of Kashwakamak Lake was also hit hard. Many large oaks came down, but there seemed to be limited damage to cottages and the main lodge. One week afterwards, the trees and branches had all been removed and the area carefully raked.
We previously reported that there were trees down on the Ardoch road between Coxvale and Ardoch. We now are able to establish that the south shore of Malcolm Lake sustained damage and that Malcolm Lake seems, tentatively, to be the eastern edge of the storm.
The area hit by the storm seems to go from Skootamata Lake in the west (the Hughes Landing Road was very badly hit); east to Cloyne, which suffered extensive damage and one death; then further eastwards to Marble Lake, where the Marble Lake Lodge and Will Cybulskis property sustained damage from falling trees. The Woodcreast Resort Park, south of Marble Lake was hit hard and it appears, although we did not directly verify it, that the whole of Kaswakamak Lake suffered damage from falling trees. There was extensive damage on Mississagagon Lake, which is north east of Marble Lake.
It should be noted that the list of the places we have mentioned that were hit is by no means complete. Our earlier estimate that the damage was in an area approximately 28 km by 8km was probably not far wrong. However we would now estimate that it was 10-15 km at its widest point.
Isabel Ruddick and Allison Myatt, from Environment Canada, flew over an area from Coboconk in the west to Lanark County in the east. They observed and reported on downed trees to the west and east of Highway # 62, north of the town of Millbridge. They report that when they reached the town of Cloyne they saw many downed trees these trees were, according to the report, concentrated mainly around the town of Cloyne.
They go on to say that, Immediately east of Cloyne, some patches of downed trees were observed; however further along the projected pathway to Lanark no damage was observed. The report concludes, that the damage consisting of hundreds of downed trees observed in parts of eastern Ontario was the result of straight line winds with gusts estimated at between 100 to 130 km per hour.
The preliminary storm damage report prepared by Environment Canada does not adequately cover the damage done in North Frontenac. The damage in North Frontenac is not confined to the area around Cloyne, as they state - that is, unless they consider all of the area from Cloyne to Malcolm Lake to be around the town of Cloyne. Further, their mention of hundreds of trees paints the wrong picture. Henry Hogg, Mayor of the municipality of Addington Highlands, in Lennox & Addington County, is reported to have said that 1,000 trees were down in the Skootamata Lake area alone. We must have seen another 1,000 in our travels around North Frontenac, and we hit only a small portion of the total area.
The residents of North Frontenac know how to count trees. Many of them have worked in the bush, and I think their estimate of downed trees would be in the thousands.
Furthermore, any damage report ought to include more than downed trees. The one fatality and the injury to a girl at Woodcrest Resort Park are reported, but missing is mention of the damage to homes, resorts, and recreational property.
The municipality of North Frontenac is preparing a report of damage to their roads. When it is compiled, this information can be added to what is already known and documented, and this will present a better picture of the damage than Environment Canada seems, on the basis of their report, seems to be compiling.
The News hopes that disaster funding will not be based on inadequate data. Those of us on the ground know that a disaster has hit.
