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Severe weather in Newfoundland leaves ships stranded ashore, damages houses

Dec 31, 2016 | 1:45 PM

LARK HARBOUR, N.L. — A severe wind storm that pounded Newfoundland’s west coast on Friday was a “bad nightmare” for at least one resident who said his community looked like a “war zone” after the gusts subsided.

“Today was the worst day I’ve ever seen in my life for wind in Port Saunders harbour,” said Conway Caines, 38, who has lived in the Newfoundland and Labrador community all his life.

“It was like a bad nightmare … There was nothing but destruction,” he said in a phone interview a day after the storm.

Caines, who makes a living fishing, said the wharf “looked like a war zone” after a storm surge that “smashed them off like tooth picks.”

Caines said half of the harbour was hauled apart by the tides, casting boats adrift and sending fishing gear into the sea. A beachside convenience store was “washed out” by the lapping surf, he said, which washed over a low road and scattered debris along the shore.

“You would never, ever think (the wharf) would move. She’s been there for a lot of storms,” he said. “You wouldn’t believe … there was enough room for so much sea.”

Several vessels were without a port to dock on Saturday, Caines said. His 44-foot boat was stranded “high and dry” on land with its bottom gouged out by a cliff.

“It’s a total loss,” he said. “She’s going to rest in peace, I guess.”

Caines said the “Sea Doo,” a boat he inherited from his father, was uninsured and estimates it was worth about $35,000. Caines had planned to convert the vessel into a tour boat, but said now those dreams have been “shattered.”

“Let’s put it this way, I had to drink a lot of beer to go to sleep,” he said. “I pray nothing like this happens to anybody else … It’s devastating to me. My future business is gone.”

Caines said he thinks the town’s economy may take a hit as those who earn a living from fishing struggle to replace the equipment they lost before the season starts in spring.

For the time being, Caines said his greatest concern is salvaging what he can and figuring out how to haul his wrecked vessel from the beach to the dump.

Another hard hit community was Lark Harbour on The Bay of Islands, which was whipped by hurricane-force winds. RCMP say the gusts destroyed one home, damaged others and took out power lines.

Michael Childs, a resident of the tiny fishing village, said he drove through the community and saw a tractor-trailer blown on its side in a ditch, an overturned ship washed up on shore and a gutted house with its roof blown clean off.

“It makes you think what Mother Nature can do to you,” Childs said. “You don’t know from one minute to the next.”

The Canadian Press