Gerry Beltgens Special to the Chronicle
The Ladysmith Maritime Society came through the Dec. 20 windstorm surprisingly intact.
“It was because of the regular maintenance and upgrades by our volunteers that the damage to the LMS facilities was kept to the minimum,” said marina manager Marc Pettigrew.
There were two damaged fingers and one possible broken piling on A dock. There was also some cladding lifted on some of the boathouses.
The main damage was to the big tent on the visitor dock. It was ripped from its brackets on the dock and flipped over. Much of the frame was bent, but the tent canvas itself was not badly damaged.
Pettigrew is sure that the tent will be back in time for the next season. Considering that the wind was gusting up to 90 km/h that was not too bad.
The boats in Dogpatch fared fairly well with no obvious new sinkings.
The main office of LMS was located above the docks in the blue heritage building which was damaged in the storm.
Staff have moved to the welcome centre on the dock until the building is fixed.
Debbie Lowen, LMS office manager, was working upstairs in the office during the storm.
“Around 2 p.m. the whole building shook and there was a loud bang on the roof! I walked over to the art gallery and asked what they thought had happened. They just said that they were packing up right away.
“I texted Kelly at public works from the town, at 2:18 to let him know what I had experienced. He texted back, “please leave the building now.” They told me that I was not to return to the building until further notice and that I should get as far away as quickly as possible. It took me five hours to get to my home in Crofton because of all the closed roads.”