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July 3rd 2011 was a gorgeous day the sun was shining, hot and there was a light southerly breeze in the air. Lake goers were enjoying water recreation, water-skiers, jet skiers, fisherman and swimmers could be seen from the shore. It was a perfect day to end the Canada Day celebrations and the perfect start to the vacation season at Ministikwan Lake. Until 6:00 pm!
We have heard meteorologists say Micro bursts, plough winds, and just plain wind. Cyclone might be more like it. Ministikwan lake has not seen anything like it for better than 50 years.
At 6:00 pm inside of 30 seconds the wind had gotten up enough speed coming directly out of the south to lay trees on the ground like match sticks. All those trees are now facing north. Just as quickly the wind changed and hit us directly from the west, again stripping the leaves while the rain was pelting us horizontally. The wind was so strong so fast the rain did not have a chance to drop it was like being forced from a fire hose. The trees which came down here are all facing east and if you were to walk 300 yards to the east all the trees are facing south. Was the wind swirling, ploughing or bursting? It does appear that where the wind came down is about a mile in diameter and you can see two new swaths through Big Bear Island and if you Google earth Ministikwan Lake one might find a visual which defines the affected area.
During the first 60 seconds anything which wasn’t nailed down was picked up like it was meant to sail through the air. Metal lawn chairs flew by as if they had no weight; the hot tub lid was spinning and taking flight like a kite soaring into the sky.
The wind had such a velocity and constant pressure we were really unsure of the best place to take cover, as the trees were also being twisted off and branches were coming off like spears driving into the ground up to 10 inches and ripping through Roberts’s metal roof.
Mean while campers had taken cover in their trailers only to be rocked back and forth while watching the trees crash around them. I am not sure anyone thought they were taking off on a journey to OZ. What people got was a real fear of the unknown something of which we have absolutely no control.
The whole event I am sure was less than 5 minutes, as the wind died of I ventured out checking on all the campers in the yard finding everyone alive & unscathed I grabbed the Chainsaw and headed for the campground. I cut a couple of trees in order to make it to the Goat Trail once around to the campground I found Rick along with a few others cutting their way into the campground.
At first glance the campground was like a war zone trees all over some resting on campers some twisted off laying on the road ways some rows worse than others. With the incredible wind coming across the water docks along with several boats were flipped over in the water. Alice cried when she saw her water toy upside down half submerged in the lake. Boats on lifts were also tossed around rearranging themselves on the shoreline.
In the end of the day there indeed was damage to property but no lives were lost and we were able to see a great sense of community as everyone who was on site pitched in a helping hand as the cleanup effort took on a life of its own. There will be fire wood for many nights to come.
When one assesses the whole situation Ministikwan Lake was quite isolated in this event. It was almost as if we were alone with our problem. Then you compound this with an unprecedented power outage which lasted 45 hours and has comedy of errors attached to it. Our area of the world is at the end of the line as far as power goes and apparently no one from the power corporation even bothered to ensure we back up and running, they must have just assumed we were good to go??? During the past two days I have not seen anyone in any municipal or provincial capacity visit the area or even gather any related information. We will save that for another day.
After the past couple of days this weekend’s annual family golf tournament, barbeque and street dance will be a welcome reprieve. We hope see everyone on the course.
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