If A Tree Falls in the Forest ...

In early August of this year, we had three tornadoes touch down in the Haliburton area. Most of us had no electricity for about six days, but some folks had lots of damage to their homes and properties. We were visiting with friends when it took place. The drive home would normally take about an hour, but that night took us over three hours. Many roads were completely blocked by fallen trees tangled with hydro and telephone wires.

Fortunately the weather was beautiful and, being in "cottage country" everyone spent most of that time on or in the lakes. Everyone, that is, except the folks who had the job of restoring electricity, phone service, and clearing the roads of the debris and fallen trees.

They worked endless hours of overtime in the heat, with bugs buzzing around them looking for an opportunity for a meal. The trees were braided together with hydro wires, and they had to climb in amongst the debris with chainsaws to untangle the mess. Their twelve to eighteen hour days, were not filled with boating, docks and cold beer.

In the weeks and months that followed, the clean-up continued. We all saw significant damage to the forest along the sides of the roads, but as the leaves fell, it became much easier to see the extent of Mother Nature's work.

Innumerable huge trees were twisted off at the middle or top of the trunk like the one you see above. Now as you drive along the Harburn or Eagle Lake Roads, you see swathes of trees laying on their sides as if cut down by some Paul Bunyan sized sythe.

These three pictures should actually be stitched together, but I'm not that clever, so you'll have to imagine them lined up side by side, or come for a drive to the Eagle Lake/West Guilford/Drag Lake area.