“A heck of a year”: Tweed mayor

 The mayor of Tweed says it’s been “a heck of a year” for her community.

Mayor Jo-Anne Albert made the comment during a meeting of Hastings County council on Thursday.

Albert was referring to the tornado that hit her community one month ago.

Albert pointed to the devastation for Tweed, Limerick and northern Marmora.

She says the “forestry devastation is unbelievable.”

“… and if you drive No 7 from Madoc up to Kaladar you can see. Something has to be done. We need some help from the ministry. I think we all do, to help with the clean-up.”

Albert pointed to the possibility of the Scootamata rivers being clogged with trees, the possibilities of flooding in the spring and fire possibilities as well.

“The fire load that this is presenting to people. It’s scary. The other big thing that’s happened is, along the Scootamata rivers – they’re completely clogged with trees.  So what’s going to happen come spring when everything gets flooded?  So we do need some help and we’re asking the ministry for help.”

She said she hopes for provincial assistance but has not yet heard from the government.

Albert said her community received help “from others such as the Christian ministries, the Mennonite Ministries came in. We had Team Rubicon Canada.”

“Team Rubicon Canada are volunteers, made up of mainly military, or I think, police officers. Their skills were unbelievable. They took over the organization rather than have it haphazard.”
Albert added, “They helped over 55 residents clean out their properties, so they could get into their properties at least. Tarped their roofs and helped them as much as they could.””Our Tweed Legion branch opened up the stairs and had a barracks set up upstairs of the legion. On the last Sunday that they were there they held a fundraiser. The place was packed and they made over $12,000 that they donated to Team Rubicon to help them in their work.”

Warden Rick Phillips said, “It was horrific, but like you say, the community working together with other agencies in the county and it’s just amazing what people can do when they put their minds to it.”