By Angela Hill

Storm clean-up for camp ongoing

Aug 17, 2011 | 11:20 AM

The storm nightmare has not ended for the owners of Clarke Lake Lodge, a private hunting and fishing camp, about 70 kilometres north of Big River.

They are still cleaning up the more than 300 trees that fell on the property during the early August storm that damaged cabins, ripped out a dock and flung boats onto the shore.

“Our docks and our boats got twisted off. Our dock had three boats tied to it and they got twisted off and blown up on shore,” said Ramona Farago, who owns the lodge with her husband Richard and son, John.

“It’s going to take weeks and months to finish cleaning up and that’s just around the camp. We haven’t even been out to the outfitting area to see how much damage done out there.”

The good news is, the storm left three cabins standing, as well as the lodge, generator and store.

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“And nobody got hurt, which was a miracle because we had lots of campers in tents,” Farago said.

However, a majority of the campsites cannot be rented because of the damage and five cabins are also out of commission.

“Summertime is usually the busiest … nicer weather means more people,” Farago said.

“(There is) a loss of business. This is one of our better months and I’ve had to turn lots of people away and tell them we have no more cabin rentals or boat launch.”

They’ve done a lot of cleaning, but haven’t yet started on repairs because they are waiting on their insurance adjustors, she said.

“It’s just kind of all at a standstill.

“We’ve had insurance adjustors come out and take a look and we still don’t know where we stand with that, so we’re not touching anything until we hear from them. In the meantime, we’re only running at about 25 per cent capacity.”

It’s been exhausting for the family, even with the support of the volunteers who have made a few trips out to help clean up.

“We’re still all in shock I’m sure, it really hasn’t all sunk in,” Farago said.

She said they are having trouble figuring out where to go to for additional support. Farago said she’s sent photos and emails to their MLA and MP, contacted the rural municipality to apply of disaster relief.

“I don’t know what to do.”

ahill@panow.com