'Shock' weekend storm topples trees, traps campers at parks in northern Ontario

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Shana Calixte-Pitawanakwat and her husband David were spending a quiet Saturday evening at their campsite at Samuel de Champlain Provincial Park when it suddenly became too quiet.

In an instant, tree branches began to fall around them, as thunder, lightning and strong winds forced them to hunker down.

“The wind and the trees just went all the way over, almost hitting the ground and then just started to crack and snap,” Calixte-Pitawanakwat said in an interview on Monday.

“I was just freaking out.”

The couple from Sudbury were among hundreds of people at two northern Ontario provincial parks who were caught in a severe storm over the weekend. The storm downed power lines and toppled trees, prompting emergency crews to rescue trapped campers and fix damaged roadways.

David Pitawanakwat said he and his wife were holding on to each other and dodging flying branches as trees fell against their trailer and truck. The storm hit around 9 p.m. and went on for about half an hour, he said, and it had come with no warning.

They’d spent plenty of time outdoors during thunderstorms in the past, he said, but it was nothing like this.

“The rain, the sound, the speed, I’m being hit by branches, by bark, by splinters, everything just hitting the side of my body as I’m looking up in the air,” he recalled. “I tried to keep my eyes open but there was so much rain and wind.”

“We were just in shock, in true shock.”

He said after the peak of the storm passed, he helped check on nearby campers, some of whom were seriously hurt. One woman told him her husband was trapped with a broken leg, he said.

“I grab my axe and I follow her into that bush and try to get back to him and just mentally preparing myself for what I’m going to see,” he recounted. “After I found him, I reassessed him. He seemed to be OK.”

Other campers were sheltering under mattresses and tables, he said, as everyone waited for first responders into the early hours of Sunday morning.

Ontario Provincial Police said Sunday night that about 290 people were evacuated from Samuel de Champlain Provincial Park and Kiosk Provincial Park, between North Bay and Mattawa, after the storm, and multiple people were injured.

Hwy. 17 near Mattawa was closed Sunday due to storm damage, but has since partly reopened.

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Calixte-Pitawanakwat said they were evacuated by emergency crews around 4 a.m. the next day, and were among several dozen others taken to a respite centre in Mattawa.

David Pitawanakwat said they had to leave behind much of their personal belongings and there’s no timeline for when they can return to their trailer. He said the sight of century-old trees toppled over and the sound of the storm will “be with me for a while” as the couple recovers from the event.

“It’s the sound we have to live with now,” he said. “The sounds of trees breaking, the sounds of people calling out for help, the sound of chainsaws, the sound of even the birds in the morning.”

Calixte-Pitawanakwat said she and her husband hadn’t slept that night and were shaken up by the storm, but the volunteers in Mattawa welcomed them warmly and helped them feel comfortable. People were donating food and clothes, she said, and made them feel at home.

“That was just like a whole community rallying around us,” she said. “It was so amazing, and I will be forever thankful.”

Her husband said while the storm has taught him how powerful nature can be, it has also taught him the power of strangers standing by one another in the aftermath of chaos.

“We were tied with each other, we have been through something and we survived it and we held on to each other and support each other and kept pushing forward,” he said. “That’s all we could do.”