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I ---- BE ln, Mother Nature has been taking her revenge against Scugog Township with not one, but three vicious storms last week. One person was killed, at least one other was injured, and more than $100,000 in damage was caused - because of the severe lightning, driving rain and high winds. It all started Monday evening just before the dinner hour. The day's hot sunny weather degenerated swiftly into one of the harshest wind storms in recent years. Hydro was knocked out in Port Perry at 4:27 and stayed out for nearly four hours while crews work- ed to repair the main feeder lines. In some areas of the township the hydro was off for shorter periods of time but the black-out persisted in other places for seven hours. Countless trees and hydro poles were snapped off in Monday's storm, and a drive through the Township revealed damaged trees and broken limbs littering nearly every roadside. Some of the worst tree damage was inflicted on property in the southwest end of Port Perry, on Union Street. Shirley and Doug Whalen reported the destruction of eight large maple trees, all of them at least a century old. The trees lined their back yard and were sheared off or up-rooted during the storm, along with the Whalen's hedge and their back fence. One tree fell straight across the family's swimming pool, bare- ly missing the house. No one was at home at the time, but a neighbour watched, terrified, as the trees fell, one after another. Mr. Whalen is confident insurance will cover part of the damage, such as the fences, but won't cover the money he has had to shell out in order to clean up the mess in his backyard. He counts himself lucky he has such good neighbours and friends who volunteered to pitch in with the massive clean-up. "They all just came and started working, without even being ask- ed," he said. "If it wasn't for them, I don't know. what we would have done." Gord and Vivian Lee also have good friends who were willing to help out, but it will take more than a clean-up to get their lives back to normal. The Blackstock-area couple had been building their dream house for the past year and were getting close to finishing when Monday's storm destroyed almost everything they had done so far. Contractor Keith Haines had been back-filling the house, just off the West Quarter Line south of the Shirley Road, when the storm broke. He sought shelter in his truck, mere yards away from the house, but the rain was coming down so hard he didn't see or hear anything as the wind tore off the en- tire top section of the house and deposited it in a heap on the ground nearby. : Only the foundation was un- damaged. Tools and three com- pressors were buried under the fall- ing debris and Mrs. Lee wasn't sure what kind of shape they'd be in. All told, she figures more than $30,000 worth of damage was in- flicted by the storm. The house was insured, but the set-back will mean the Lee's won't be able to move in as soon as they thought they would. The couple was heart-broken over their loss. It wasn't the only building to fall because of the storm, however. A barn belonging to Hanover Hill Farms on Highway 12 just south of Manchester collapsed, causing ap- proximately $30,000 damage. Ken Trevena, who lives at the farm, says the barn was 25 years old but it was solid and in good shape. Two young bulls were quarantined in the barn at the time, waiting to be shipped off to France, and although - they weren't injured, Mr. Trevena says "they were petrified." The wind also broke a few win- dows in the nearby farm-house. 'Insurance will cover most of it," he said, "but you know, you never have enough insurance to replace the loss. I figure it'll cost about $30,000 to build a new barn." Another farm, right across the road, also ccollapsed during the storm. Just as people were getting over Monday's storm, another equally vicious storm raged through areas of the township on Thursday even- ing, claiming one young life as it went. Eleanor Kelly, 19, and her older sister Elizabeth, both of Blackstock, were headed south on Durham Rd. 57, just north of the Highway 7A in- tersection, when the blinding rain caused the accident that would take Eleanor's life. Durham Regional Police say the girls were travelling slowly through the down-pour, but at 7:30 p.m. Eleanor lost control of the car and it flipped over onto its roof. Elizabeth Kelly suffered minor in- juries and was taken first to Com- 'munity Hospital and then to Oshawa. She was still in hospital Monday afternoon. The Thursday storm was over almost as soon as it began but Sun- day night's combination of rain, high winds, thunder and lightning lasted most of the evening. Once again, trees were ripped down in the melee and hydro employees scattered throughout the township repairing downed lines. Power was off in downtown Port Perry for more than an hour. Boats were lost in the storms, birds were killed and on Monday night, fire-fighters spent an hour and a half searching for two wind- surfers reported missing. Captain Bill Harrison said they weren't found in the search but he never heard anything more about them and is assuming they found shelter and made it home safely. He and three other fire-fighters used Captain Don Steele's boat and made the search amongst Lake Scugog's wind-swept water and white caps. High-tech unit for police The Durham Region Police force will soon have a "high-tech'" mobile command post at its disposal, thanks to a grant from the provin- cial government and Ontario Hydro. The mobile unit, which is like a Winnebago, will cost $60,000 and will have another $30,000 worth of com- munications and other equipment installed. The total $90,000 cost is being split by grants from the provincial government and the Ontario Hydro- Newcastle liason committee. The mobile command post will be used by police at the scene of major crimes and at serious accidents or disasters in Durham Region. The Regional council gave ap- proval to the financial arrangement at its meeting in Whitby last week. It could also see use in the event of hostage incidents. While the capital cost of buying the mobile unit and sophisticated communications equipment is being covered by 'he grants, operating costs will come out of the Regional Police budget. PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, June 24, 1986 -- 19 Storm fury causes destruction ( : : a, 1 7, i re iid { ' SRT on \ Gi fo a > Ee 3 £ StS ra Ko ; ? al Fe. - ee i, fe oR . [Tae \ at, oN oS : cn TIP "hy Won wo : FH 3 2 i > To, 4 Sa I C$ hati Wh eh 1 La ' 3 Son 5 nS Ee - - AN £ 3 ey EY . $ . ET ~~ - Above, they pose with their son Steve in front of one tree that was literally ripped out of the ground, roots and all. Shirley and Doug Whalen were devastated when they saw the damage that had been done to their property by Monday night's storm. 4. A "¥ night. Mrs. Lee figures the storm cost her and husband more than $30,000. This is all that remains of Gord and Vivian Lee's dream house after it was destroyed by the storm that ripped through the area Monday i. & 4 barn they were staying in collapsed all around them. Nobody was hurt at Ken Trevena's place during Monday night's storm, but two valuable young bulls were pretty shaken up when the