Storm hit 90 minutes after Environment Canada issued severe thunderstorm warning; OPP crews still looking for third man
PATRICK WHITE AND JENNIFER MACMILLAN
LAC SEUL, ONT. and TORONTO — From Saturday's Globe and Mail
Last updated on Monday, Jul. 13, 2009 03:45AM EDT
The skies over Lac Seul turned a morbid shade of black shortly before 8:30 on Thursday night. Even long-time residents of the remote area 200 kilometres northeast of Kenora, Ont., known for its erratic weather, fetched cameras to capture the eerie wall of cloud chasing in from the west.
Brian Denzler, co-owner of Fisherman's Cove lodge, was watching television when he noticed the weather's grim turn.
He stared out his window for 30 seconds before he heard the noise that witnesses described as sounding like a freight train, a jet engine and a waterfall.
"The tornado was on top of us," he said yesterday from a rise overlooking two cement pads where cabins 1 and 2 once stood.
He watched as the swirling funnel uprooted poplars fringing the fish camp and traced a path directly toward the cabins where three men from Oklahoma were staying.
"It was so quick," he said, "and those cottages were airborne. It was like watching The Wizard of Oz. But then everything just turned to matchsticks and it all went flying across the lake, half a mile out or more."
Within 15 minutes, the skies had turned blue, and Mr. Denzler was in his boat scouring debris for signs of life.
Two bodies were found in the water shortly after the twister passed.
Through much of yesterday, boats and divers from the Ontario Provincial Police marine unit searched the lake for the third man, along with a helicopter from the Ministry of Natural Resources. The Tulsa World newspaper identified the two dead as Bernie Jackson, 65, and Stan Hollis, 79, both of Ponca City, about an hour and a half northwest of Tulsa.
The missing man is reported to be Dennis Kinkaid, 66, who owned a diner in Ponca City.
"Here we are in tornado alley, and you go to Canada and have this freakish thing happen," Mr. Kinkaid's wife, Dayna, told the Tulsa World in a phone interview.
The newspaper reported that Mr. Jackson and Mr. Hollis were retired from the city's public-school system.
At the scene yesterday, two-by-fours littered the ground. Several had speared clean through roofs.
The tarpaper atop Mr. Denzler's home had been stripped off.
A trail of crumpled trees, 100 feet wide in places, marked the tornado's path northeast through the camp and for several miles across the islands and peninsula tips of Lac Seul.
Shards of lumber from the cabins littered the shoreline adjacent to Fisherman's Cove.
A third cabin shifted several metres, but the five people inside sustained only minor injuries, according to Environment Canada meteorologist Geoff Coulson.
The remaining 10 or so cabins appeared untouched.
Staff from Environment Canada surveyed the scene yesterday and classified the tornado as an F2, with wind speeds between 180 and 240 kilometres an hour.
Mr. Coulson said video and photos of the storm feature several telltale signs of a tornado.
"One of the still photos does show that classic wedge shape," Mr. Coulson said.
Environment Canada issued a severe thunderstorm warning for the region at 7 p.m. CT on Thursday, and the storm hit at about 8:30 p.m. CT.
"It was moving very quickly," Mr. Coulson said. "You're not given a lot of time to react."
He said any severe thunderstorm can morph into a twister.
"We get 11 [tornados] each year across the province, and most are reported in Southern Ontario, but every year we get a couple in Central and Northern Ontario," he said, adding that fewer are reported in the north because the region is so sparsely populated.
The Fisherman's Cove camp on Lac Seul is about 15 kilometres south of Ear Falls, a community of 1,150 that serves as a hub for the lodges in the area.
Ron Brownlee runs Brownlee's Holiday North Lodge, a fishing camp just north of Ear Falls. He said 90 per cent of tourists who come to fish in the summer are American, and Lac Seul is a big draw.
"It's one of the most well-known walleye fishing lakes in Canada," Mr. Brownlee said. "You can catch 100 walleyes a day there and the Americans think that's amazing."
Kathy Campbell owns the fishing lodge next door to Fisherman's Cove, and said many Americans are drawn by the usually good weather.
"They come up here because they don't think they're going to run into storms like that," she said.
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Topic: Two dead after tornado strikes N. Ontario camp (Read 2066 times)