Nearly 300 campers forced to evacuate after storm rips through the northeast

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Campers caught in intense weekend storm share evacuation story

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Clean-up is still taking place after Saturday night’s monstrous storm blasted its way through northeastern Ontario.

Crews are working around the clock on Highway 17 in Calvin Township getting downed trees off hydro lines and away from the road while Hydro One works to restore power.

The intense thunderstorm left nothing but destruction in its path over the weekend.

Provincial park campgrounds – Samuel de Champlain and Kiosk -- bore the brunt of it, trapping nearly 300 campers who had to be rescued by first responders.

No one was killed, but several injuries did occur.

David Pitawanakwat was evacuated from Samuel de Champlain Provincial Park “When the sun came up and there were no trees, it was nothing but a big open field.”

Two campers from Algonquin Park, about 34 kilometres south down Highway 630, had to be rescued as well.

As the storm blew through, Pitawanakwat and his wife Shana Calixte-Pitawanakwat sheltered their campsite neighbours’ children when their father sustained severe injuries.

“Two people on our end of the campsites or two broken legs at two different sites. So, I just wanted to make sure where they were at and find a way to get to them,” Pitawanakwat said.

“So when the first responders came in, I could lead them to the people.”

“We had them in our trailer for the night,” Calixte-Pitawanakwat said about the kids.

“So that they could just be safe while they were trying to tend to the injuries.”

Road reopened

Highway 17 is reopened, but sections of Highway 630 remains closed as the road was washed out.

States of emergency are still in place for Calvin Township and Bonfield and will stay in place until the roads are fixed.

“The situation that we face right now is if a fire truck was going down the road, there are roads that are undermined and they could collapse,” Calvin Township Mayor Richard Gould said.

The Northern Tornadoes Project is still working to determine the storm’s magnitude and if a twister touched down, but that might take a few days.

“It’s a lot of trying to really take a look and examine the area, and also maybe try to look for that needle in the haystack sort of scenario,” the project’s acting director Connell Miller said in a Zoom interview Monday.

All the while, a lengthy clean-up is expected to continue

“Just big thank you for all that. First responders, the paramedics, the police, the military.”