‘The rain felt like bullets’: Ayr woman recounts severe thunderstorm that left one dead at Pinehurst Lake | TheRecord.com

2022-05-28 02:46:09 By : Mr. Scott Su

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AYR — The storm seemed to come out of nowhere.

As Ayr resident Kim Kaczmarek prepared for a hike at Pinehurst Lake Conservation Area on Saturday afternoon, a severe thunderstorm bringing wind gusts up to 130 km/h quickly descended on the unsuspecting campers.

One woman was killed, and two others injured after a tree fell on a trailer at a campsite at the park just north of Paris. But in the hours leading up to the fatal storm, Kaczmarek said, it felt like any other relaxing long weekend at an Ontario campsite.

The weather forecast in the morning showed a chance of a thunderstorm, she said, but nothing to be overly concerned about.

No one was preparing for what was coming, she said.

She was just outside the camp’s washroom, about to start a hike with her partner, Bruce Marentette, when dark skies moved in and the wind picked up. When the rain started pelting down, the pair started running back to their campsite.

The full force of the storm soon hit.

“The rain felt like bullets and the leaves were blowing everywhere and whipping into your face,” she said. “At every campsite you could just see and hear people grabbing stuff. I got hit in the neck by a fallen branch, then we heard a tree come down behind us.”

Back at their site, she said, they did their best to grab anything that could blow away before taking cover.

The two sat huddled in their converted Volkswagen camper van as they heard screams over the sounds of the rain, hail and thunder.

When the storm died down about 20 minutes later, she said, the scene at the park was like the aftermath of a tornado.

“I could see people starting to get out of their tents and trailers and everyone was just checking on each other, which was so nice to see,” she said. “And then we heard the ambulances and the fire trucks, and I could see the flashing lights as they started flooding into the park.”

A few campsites over — where she had waved to the campers before she left to start her hike — a tree had fallen onto a trailer.

Police confirmed one woman died in the incident after being transported to hospital — one of 10 deaths reported in Ontario and Quebec as a result of the storm. Two others were treated at the park for non-life-threatening injuries.

“Earlier, when we walked past them, they were just relaxing at the site, and there was a woman lying in a hammock,” said Kaczmarek. “When the rain started, and we ran by, they were packing up and that’s the last thing we saw of them. It’s just very shocking.”

Police have since identified the woman who was killed as 27-year-old Shelby Humble-Neale of Brantford. A funeral will be held in Brantford at Beckett-Glaves Family Funeral Centre on Saturday.

Nearby, fallen trees flattened several tents used by a group of university-aged students, said Kaczmarek.

Fortunately, she said, the group was at the beach at the time of the storm.

“If they weren’t at the beach, you know that they all would have gone into their tents to weather the storm,” she said. “Who knows what would have happened if they were there?”

Camp staff and police spent the rest of the day going from campsite to campsite to make sure everyone was OK, said Kaczmarek. Campers pitched in as well to pick up debris, clean up campsites and help locate any missing dogs.

Fortunately, Kaczmarek left her dog, Sawyer, at home for the weekend.

After the debris was removed from roads and emergency service vehicles left, many campers decided to head home.

Some, like Kaczmarek, decided to stick it out for the weekend. New campers arrived on Sunday, many with questions about the storm.

Kaczmarek is an avid camper and has camped in winter in temperatures of -40 C. But this weekend’s experience will have a lasting impact, she said.

“When I think about the weekend now, I think about the moments after the storm and just seeing all these people helping people,” she said. “Strangers were helping strangers and making sure everyone had what they needed, and I think that was pretty incredible to see.”

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