The last few days have returned a rather familiar pattern of wind and rain to the North coast, with Tuesday night in particular, making for one of the main conversation topics around town for most of the week.
Tuesday night’s windstorm reminded many Rupertites of the wrath of Mother Nature that occasionally blows ashore along the North Coast, though we may be getting spoiled by our more sedate seasonal changes of late.
Environment Canada noted that while strong in nature, the storm that arrived in full force in the early morning hours of Wednesday morning wasn’t quite up to the mark of legendary north coast storms.
Small comfort we suspect for the workers at Fairview Container Port which saw more than a few containers batted around the container dock, or for residents of the west side of the city who seemed to take the brunt of the storm as it arrived.
The excitement of the overnight period made for much in the way of content on the local information portal hackingthemainframe and proved to be a major part of the Thursday Daily News as well.
The paper provided some details on the storms visit and the damage count from different areas of the city.
Storm leaves trail of destruction
While it was no record breaker, howling winds caused lots of damages
By George T. Baker and Monica Lamb-Yorski
The Daily News
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Pages one and two
Southern winds barged through the North Coast Tuesday night, ripping roofs off homes and felling trees throughout Prince Rupert.
According to Environment Canada, winds reached gusts of 94 kilometers per hour and a sustained peak at 59 kilometers per hour.
Environment Canada’s David Jones said that while the gusts were strong, I was nowhere near an exceptional storm for Prince Rupert.
“On at least 95 other occasions since 1964, the airport at Prince Rupert has recorded gusts higher than last night’s 94 km/h,” said Jones yesterday.
“The highest gust ever is 137 km/h on Nov. 28, 1968. For the month of October only, last night’s 94 km/h doesn’t crack the top 10 list for gusts. The highest gust ever in October is 135 km/h on Oct. 18. 1964.”
For those who might be curious Jones added that a hurricane-force wind is sustained wind of 119 km/h.
While no record was set, that might come as little comfort to those walking around town Tuesday night as the wind howled and rain poured ferociously on city streets.
On Wednesday morning, chainsaws were screaming in different areas of the city and residents were left to assess the damage done to their properties.
In one case on Sloan Avenue, a local homeowner was extremely lucky. A tree in his front yard fell over his driveway, narrowly missing his white pick-up truck and front-yard deck.
In another case, part of the roof on one of Harbour View apartments’ empty buildings on Evergreen Drive behind Solly’s Pub blew off around 3 a. m.
“Pieces flew across and shattered to windows on the building next door,” said Harbour View Apartment manager Clayton McLellan, who has been manager for 14 months.
McLellan said they used Styrofoam to build the roof back up a few years ago and that was the reason the roof fell off.
His wife Florett said that the glass from a broken window cut one of the tenants.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment