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Windstorm on Gulf Islands: ‘It was close to terrifying’

Ingrid Gaines has a faint hope Christmas will be filled with light this year.
Debris by David MacPherson’s garden shed on Salt Spring Island.
Debris by David MacPherson’s garden shed on Salt Spring Island

Ingrid Gaines has a faint hope Christmas will be filled with light this year.

“But I expect we’ll be in candlelight, maybe bundled up more than normal against the cold and just trying to have a good time in spite of everything,” the Saturna Island resident said Monday, four days after a windstorm knocked out power to Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands.

“Everyone is trying their best. We just have to keep on smiling.”

Gaines, manager of the Saturna General Store, normally hosts a big family Christmas of about 20 people. The challenge this year is trying to figure out which house to go to because most people don’t have power, she said. And although she has water from the water system, there has been on a boil water advisory for about two months.

“Luckily, we have generators so we can probably make something happen one way or another. The turkey is already here, so it has to be cooked.”

Priscilla Ewbank, owner of the general store, said Thursday’s windstorm ripped and splintered 13 utility poles.

“Because we have the lighthouse out here, we know that, of all the Gulf Islands, we have the highest recorded wind gusts and the highest sustained wind gusts. After 120 km/h it stopped recording and we know it was more than that,” said Ewbank.

“I’ve lived here for 40 years and it was impressive. It was close to terrifying. It was my biggest wake up call — we’re in a climate change. This was spectacular mixed with terrifying.”

The store was without power for four days which is just about the time limit of the big walk-in freezers and coolers, said Ewbank.

“We were very lucky. We teamed up with a big sheep farm on south Saturna and we probably sent $60,000 worth of meat to Jace food suppliers. And they kindly took our meat, all cut and wrapped into their freezer. That was a great co-operation.”

The recreation centre on Saturna has a giant generator so that’s been supplying hot meals and showers for people, said Ewbank.

“We have people who are on oxygen (for health reasons) . . . we have people with four or five kids. It’s the whole diversity of any community and it’s tough. The first day is kind of cool. The second day is kind of interesting and the third day, it’s getting pretty hard because there’s no heat in a lot of houses.”

Most long-time Saturna Island residents have wood stoves but a lot of people have wells that require electricity to bring the water up, so they’re not getting water, said Ewbank.

“But everybody’s cheerful and everybody’s working it out and for all these poor young people who are so used to cellphone service ... You can see the look in their eyes. ‘My phone, my phone,' ” laughed Ewbank.

The ferries are still going, but with power out on shore, deckhands have to use the ship’s power to lift the ramps.

“It’s not a lot of fun at 10 p.m. in the dark,” said Gaines, who also works for B.C. Ferries.

Kareen and David MacPherson planned to host Christmas dinner for their children and grandchildren at their Salt Spring Island home.

Then the storm struck and the power went out.

“It was frightening. It was really frightening,” David MacPherson said Monday from his daughter’s house in Victoria. “We’ve had winds before, but it started gusting around 2 p.m. and then the wind just kept blowing and getting stronger. “

Looking out his front window, MacPherson saw a number of fir trees bent over at a 45 degree angle.

“It was unreal. And there was debris falling off them. It was like that scene in the Wizard of Oz where the tornado comes and everything was swirling around. It was unbelievable,” said MacPherson.

“We started to hear large thumps on the deck and on the roof of very large branches coming and that was very frightening. I told Kareen we had to get away from any windows. And it just kept coming and coming. I felt powerless because we couldn’t do anything, we just had to wait it out.”

A huge tree limb and a tree top fell within one foot of their new car.

“They would have blown a hole in the car if they hit it,” he said.

Driving around the next day, MacPherson said he was in awe of the devastation. The number of trees down must be in the thousands, he said.

One blew down on Trincomali Heights Road, the main road from their house and they had to drive under a powerline.

“It was nerve-wracking, but it was the only way we could get out.”

When MacPherson went down to the golf club to see what was happening, the general manager told him they’d lost more than 100 trees.

“But people on the island are so great. You could start hearing the whir of chainsaws, once the wind died down and a whole lot of people just went out and did what they had to do. It was quite amazing.”

On Saturday, with no power and no water, they decided to have Christmas in Victoria. They packed all the presents and all the Christmas food and are now staying with their daughter Christiane.

“We’re all making do. We’re just thankful nobody was hurt.”

MacPherson believes it will be weeks before the damage is cleaned up.

“I was talking to some old timers at the golf club and they haven’t seen winds like this ever and I’m sure they’ve had some bad storms.”

ldickson@timescolonist.com

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