Cambridge helps Goderich clean up
Posted Aug 26, 2011 04:38:22 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A small team from Cambridge returns home today after spending some time helping the town of Goderich clean up from Sunday’s tornado.
Four forestry workers, an aerial truck, a chipper truck and two chippers were dispatched to Goderich on Wednesday.
Cambridge’s Commissioner of Community Services says the call for help came in through a provincial agency.
“Goderich, through the Ontario Parks Association, issued a request for assistance, particularly with the clean-up of tree limbs and branches and that sort of thing,” McVittie says. “(That would) facilitate them getting the hydro and gas back on in the town.”
McVittie says the team from Cambridge was primarily responsible for chipping branches that had already been removed from trees and roads and then shipping them to an appropriate storage facility.
He says it’s not uncommon for municipalities to call on one another in times of need and it worked out for Cambridge to answer the call this time around.
“In a situation like this, where it’s a very localized event, (we can help),” McVittie explains. “Obviously, a windstorm sweeping through Ontario would cause damage all over the place and everybody would need their forestry staff. But in this case, a very specific location was hit very hard, and we were able to help out.”
McVittie says they’ll assess the progress in Goderich once the team returns home — and also consider the city’s own needs after Wednesday’s storm here — before deciding if another team will return to continue with the clean-up effort.
