The community of Honeywood pitched in and provided great hospitality to 18 people stranded on County Road 124 during last Saturday’s storm.
Mulmur Mayor Paul Mills declared a State of Emergency on Saturday morning after being informed of the situation, and the OPP and the Mulmur-Melancthon Fire Department rescued and transported all of the travellers to the North Dufferin Community Centre, where volunteers led by Mulmur Councillor Heather Hayes and representatives from the Dufferin County Emergency Services Department provided food, shelter, and by all accounts a pretty enjoyable night of entertainment and safe haven.
The Echo received two heartfelt letters of thanks from people who were on the receiving end of Honeywood’s hospitality; below are their first-hand accounts of “the storm of 2012.”
Remembering “the incredible efforts of so many”
Dear Echo,
I am from Grand Island, New York and last Saturday afternoon I was on the way home from my sister’s after a Ladies Ski Day at Alpine Ski Club in Collingwood. Having spent the last 27 years in the Buffalo area I am quite accustomed to winter driving, so the windy conditions didn’t seem a problem. I would take my time, and I knew that if conditions on County Road 124 were bad they would have the lights on and I was prepared to turn back.
As was the case for most of us who ended up staying the night in Honeywood, the lights on the Grey County portion of 124 had not been turned on, so I ventured forth.
By the time I got to the second warning lights the weather was beginning to get quite bad and I was considering turning back, but the lights were not on and I assumed that I must be at the worst of it and expected it to improve. I passed through a small whiteout and decided that I was ready to call it quits. Unfortunately, I had a pickup truck on my tail who didn’t feel the same. I slowed right down and was preparing to stop when we hit the second whiteout and I rolled into a Dodge Ram 1500. I didn’t even see it until I hit it. You know that old saying, “Whether the rock hits the pitcher or the pitcher hits the rock, it is going to be bad for the pitcher?” Well, I was the pitcher. My hood crumpled and I knew I wasn’t going anywhere else. Mr. Tailgater stopped short of my bumper. Needless to say, he didn’t stick around.
I pulled off to the shoulder. I had driven into Bruce Alexander’s truck, a Fire Chief from the Toronto Area. He was already out checking on the drivers of the cars, vans and tractor trailer scattered on the road ahead. His snow-covered figure appeared at my window. Looking at the front of my SUV, he asked, “Did you hit my truck?” “Yes,” I answered, “and someone else just hit it again.” I had heard the impact right after I pulled onto the shoulder.
“Are you alright?” he asked. “Yes. I was going so slowly that my airbags didn’t even deploy.” “Okay,” he said, and he was gone, checking on the other vehicle.
Bruce did a great job of keeping everyone calm and safe until the police arrived. We were all pulled off to the side of the road, and we piled into the police car and Bruce’s truck and headed over to the North Dufferin Community Centre where we would spent the next 24 hours.
We were quite a mixed group, both in age and background, but we were sharing a common event and the community of Honeywood was incredibly accommodating. Steve Murphy of County of Dufferin Emergency Services did a great job of keeping us abreast of the storm and answering all our questions about how and when we would be able to get out. Juli Griffin and her team were onsite to handle any immediate questions. She got us connected to the Internet so that we could inform family of our situation, and a television with DVDs, playing cards, games, books and a host of other things all showed up without us even knowing. Mulmur Councillor Heather Hayes and her husband, along with assorted others who came and went, provided home-cooked meals and comfort items to ensure that our every need was taken care of.
Staff Sergeant Commander Steven Sills and his team of officers did a great job of handling all our accident reports and ensuring that we got back to our vehicles safely in the morning and on our way.
A big thank you to the Red Cross workers who brought us toiletries (a shout of hooray actually went up when those arrived!) and provided cots and blankets so that we had a warm, “comfortable” place to sleep.
Fire Fighters, Road Crew and Emergency works popped in and out, performing the incredible job of search and rescue, intermittently bringing in others who had been caught in the storm.
The wonderful attitude of all those who were helping was contagious and had us all feeling pretty happy that we were there, safe, unharmed and well taken care of. Games of Crazy 8, a Scrabble Tournament and a makeshift movie theatre all fell into place as we waited for Mother Nature to release her grip. We all agreed that Honeywood was a great place to be and we are hoping to be invited back for the Beef Barbeque!
The storm finally did subside during the night. While we slept crews continued to work and watch over us in shifts. We awoke to clear blue skies and a breakfast buffet fit for a king! We folded up our cots and blankets, stacked tables and chairs, got those last names and numbers, exchanged hugs and goodbyes and cued up to head out to our vehicles.
As they were dug out of the snow that had covered them during the night we were taken back to the site by the police. I was amazed when I arrived on the scene at just how much snow there had been, and I marvelled at the amount of work that must have been done to clear them out. Props to all those who worked so hard. And a special thanks to Oluf Jensen of Royal Towing & Recovery for going above and beyond the call in helping to get my vehicle back to the US.
No doubt this story was repeated in other locations up and down County Road 124 during those 24 hours, perhaps in a corner store or a farmhouse or a gas station. It is so encouraging when, in difficult times, people are so gracious and selfless in extending kindness to strangers. I am walking a little lighter these days, talking a little softer, smiling a little more and finding myself a little more patient in light of my stay in Honeywood, remembering the incredible efforts of so many. I want to pay it forward. Maybe the world will become a better place.
Michelle Hook, Grand Island, New York
“A job well done”
Dear Editor,
My husband and I along with our 10-year-old daughter Joren were involved in what will likely be coined the “storm of 2012” on County Road 124 this past weekend. We had set out around 6:30 am on Saturday morning, heading from the Beaver Valley area to Belleville for our daughter’s hockey playoffs. It was snowing, but certainly not storming, when we left home. We turned onto County Road 124 from Grey Road 4 at about 7 am. The Emergency Hazard lights were not flashing at that time, so we decided just to take our time and proceed onwards.
Somewhere (and we do mean somewhere) between County Road 9 and County Road 21, we ran into severe and blinding snow conditions. Out of necessity we pulled our car to the side of the road and subsequently were rear-ended. The severity of the weather conditions were such that it was not safe to get outside of the vehicle. We dispatched 911. Our family would formally like to recognize the efforts of all of the emergency services people who helped our family and about 20 other individuals this past weekend.
First on scene was Constable Sheldon Oram from the Dufferin County OPP detachment. Sheldon took our family to the Redickville Convenience store and I must say I have never been so happy to be in the back of a police cruiser in all of my life! At the convenience store, we met Ralph and Leona who provided us with coffee and a place to stay warm while other travellers (who also had to abandon their vehicles) were being safely escorted away from the scene. Both the Dufferin County OPP and the Mulmur Melancthon Fire Department then moved all of the stranded passengers from the convenience store to the Honeywood arena where an Emergency Command Centre was being put in place.
Over the course of a 24-hour-period we met the following people: Municipal Councillor (and gourmet chef and provider of warm socks and slippers) Heather Hayes and her husband Mike; Dufferin County Emergency Services Coordinator Steve Murphy; Dufferin County Housing Program Assistant Juli Griffin; Dufferin County Manager of Children’s Services Lori-Jane Del Medico; Dufferin County OPP Larry Matkowski; Jim Clayton, Fire Chief of the Mulmur Melancthon Department and his wife Leora; Red Cross Volunteers; Matt Bos, firefighter (and Zamboni driver, provider of TV and DVD for our daughter, and all-round great guy) from the Mulmur Melancthon Fire Department; Township of Mulmur Mayor Paul Mills; Township of Mulmur Director of Public Works John Willmetts and his snow plow crew; and CAA Royal Towing. These individuals and those working with them ran a seamless emergency operation. In fact, we sort of wondered if they had done this before on account of just how quickly a plan was put into place. We were very impressed with their collaborative efforts and with the provision of information on a regular basis. When you see these people in your community, please commend them for their extraordinary efforts. They are exceptional individuals and sure helped our family restore our belief in humanity. We recognize that all of them gave up personal time and some jeopardized their own safety to ensure ours. We cannot say thanks enough on a job well done.
So while we didn’t make it to Belleville, our daughter’s team did win Game 1 and she got to sleep in a hockey change room complete with shower and ensuite bathroom. What more could a hockey family ask for? And perhaps more importantly, our daughter learned a lesson about the importance of community and what individuals will sacrifice to help their fellow citizens.
Sincerely,
The Wilcox Family (Jodi, Joren, and Warren), Epping