EPISODE 588 INSIDE A TORNADO….AND AFTERWARD, May 21, 2022
alan and marjorie and molly skeoch
may 21, 2022
“Marjorie, get the hell into the house now…tornado…TORNADO!”
“My tulips”
“To hell with your tulips…the dog and I are safe in the house…you are out there in a tornado…you are
worried about your goddamn tulips…”
“I’m soaked now…may as well move the truck away from the trees.”
“Marjorie, Woody and I are safe…you are in the eye of the storm…get in here.”
“Wind so strong…hard to walk…rain gusting with the wind…everything loose
is flying.”
“No power…dark as a dungeon in the house.:”
“What’s the rattle, sounds like an electrical short…dangerous…rattle sound..”
“Mouse…alive , caught with one paw in one trap…his tail in another…I’ll let him go.”
OUTSIDE THE WIND WAS ROARING LIKE THE MGM LION
INSIDE THE HOUSE WAS AS DARK AS NIGHT…NOISE WAS
FEARFUL OUTSIDE..STILLNESS INSIDE WAS OTHER WORLDLY.
“What can we do? Molly is alone down on the other farm mowing the lawn. In danger!”
“She will find safety in the barn.”
“Take the ETV down snd get her.”
“Wait until the storm eases a bit.”
THEN IT WAS OVER. NO SOUND. NO RAIN. NO WIND.
OUTSIDE WAS RUIN…HUGE TREES DOWN EVERYWHERE.
THE FIRST WE SAW WAS AN ANCIENT 70 FOOT POPLAR THAT
HAD FALLEN ON MARJORIE’S TULIPS…NARROWLY MISSING MARJORIE.
SHE NEVER HEARD A THING WICH IS LIKELY HOW 5 PEOPLE DIED IN THIS STORM.
“We did not hear this tree fall…missed the truck…but got Marjorie’s tulips…could have hit her”
FIVE PEOPLE WERE KILLED BY FALLING TREES IN THE MAY 31 ONTARIO TORNADO
“That tree fell just as you left the tulips, Marjorie.”
“Never heard a thing….only the sound of the wind roaring.”
‘Could have killed you”
“Short life for the tuiips.”
“Alan, go out to the road…looks like trouble out there.”
FIFTH LINE OF ERIN TOWNSHIP, WELLINGTON COUNTY, WAS NO LONGER
A ROAD. IT WAS A TANGLE OF HUGE TREES EVERYHERE WE LOOKED.
AND AMIDST THE TANGLE WERE THE POWER LINES. TWISTED LIKE SNAKES.
“The power line posts have shattered.”
“Lines are down all over….woven in a tangle in the trees.”
“Do not go near…could kill you.”
“Could…but power is off and the lines are broken…but could be live I guess.”
‘Alan, try to get to Molly on the other farm.”
“No rain, no wind now. But hydro wires ripped from posts by the falling trees…insulators
shattered….lines broken….dead line for hundreds of feet…broken at both ends.”
“Don’t do something stupid.”
“Call Andrew on cell phone…tell him to get up here fast.”
“How can he reach us? No way a truck can get here the road
is blocked by fallen trees everywhere we look.”
“I hear a chain saw going at Tim and Valerie Rock’s place.”
“Maybe they will cut our way through to 50 sidereal…tell Andy to try that route.”
“Forget about coming up the Fifth Line. I can see downed trees
as far as Fabers…past Kerrs…looks like a road was never there.”
Some people come alive when disaster happens.,,Molly and Marjorie for instance. (The rats! See them? A pair…made of rubber.)
It will take weeks to clear up the mess….
This giant spruce tree has survived a century…then was gone in an instant.
“This section of the power line had been ripped from the posts …both ends torn clear…no danger…but, even so, Andrew
was super careful.”
“Why do it?”
“Must get clear. Jaimie has had a serous heart operation … must have access to hospital if something
happens. Worried…really worried.”
The force of falling trees and hundred mph wind shattered the electrical insulators and ripped the electric wires into great swaths of
unattached wire curled around tree branches. The same was true on other roads. There was no way hydro crews
would reach us. So neighbours with chain saws and tractors and trucks with winches began to clear the debris.
One car at Valerie Rock’s farm was crushed. But no one near our section of the Fifth line was hurt.
Jim Costello, across the road from our farm, used his flatbed truck and chains to clear his maple tree
“Strange thing….our ancient oak and maple were untouched.”
“LOOK through the branches and leaves…look down the Fifth line…trees blocking the road at Saunders farm…and distantly
at Fabers farm as well. No way anyone could get through to our place.”
ON one side of the house, our farm looks intact. Lilacs greeting the rain. On the other side the giant poplar fell and
wiped out Marjorie’s tulips but missed three things….Marjorie, our truck, and the farm house. All is well.
Now here is something for readers to ponder. This is the last apple tree in what was once
Edward Freeman’s orchard. It clings to life by a fragment of trunk. .. it will
come down with a push. We have considered removing it for years. Can you explain
why this near dead tree survived when other healthy giant maples and sprue and
poplar did not?”
alan skeoch
May 21, 2022
TH
