Tornado victims pay for damage themselves

Elie tornado victims angered by lack of financial assistance from government

Nearly a year after a tornado struck their town, residents of Elie say they are still feeling the affects of the storm.

The tornado, which occurred on June 22, 2007, destroyed five homes and caused approximately $4 million damage to properties located between Elie and Whiteshell Provincial Park. It was the only F5 category storm ever to hit Canada.

Eleven months later, the victims are still struggling to put their lives back together.

“It’s like starting all over,” said Linda Desilets, who was one of the five who lost their homes in the storm.

All of the victims had house insurance, which covered the cost of replacing their homes and belongings, but not the cost of repairing their yards.

Desilets said Premier Gary Doer promised the government would step in and help, but failed to offer adequate support to the victims.

The Emergency Measures Organization’s (EMO) Disaster Financial Assistance (DFA) program handed out payments of between $50 and $1, 200 to victims.

Desilets said that level of support was like a “spit in the face.” She said it won’t even come close to covering the cost of cleaning up her yard.

Mavis Tallieu, MLA for Morris, said the money provided by the government is entirely inadequate for undertaking such a huge cleanup.

“The payments paled in comparison to what should have been done,” she said.

“I think the NDP should be embarrassed about that.”

Tallieu said if it weren’t for the community coming together, she doesn’t know where the victims would be. The community raised almost $90, 000 to help the victims get back on their feet.

“Where would these people be if it weren’t for the generosity of Manitobans?”

Tallieu said she thinks the government is “very aware of the damage” caused by the storm, but they just aren’t willing to step in and cover the costs.

Minister Steve Ashton, who is responisble for Emergency Measures, was not available to comment on Tallieu’s claims.

Chuck Sanderson, executive director of EMO, said people need to understand the DFA program isn’t meant to be all-inclusive.

“It is meant to cover the cost of essential and absolute items,” he said.

Sanderson said it isn’t meant to cover all costs, but to cover the cost of repairing driveways and other such access to your property.

“This formula has worked well across Manitoba for years,” he said.

Sanderson said he thinks most people understand why they got the amount of money they did.

“But I can’t say that everyone is happy.”

Les Kauppila unhappy about the level of assistance he received following the storm.

Kauppila, whose property was destroyed by the tornado, said there should definitely be something in place to cover the cost of disaster cleanup on people’s property.

“As far as helping me and my neighbours, there wasn’t much,” he said. “(The government) gave some, but it’ll never cover anywhere near what it cost me.”

Kauppila’s house was rebuilt over the winter, and the wind has already taken the shingles off of it three times since then because there are no longer any mature trees to protect it.

“There’s no protection,” he said, adding that the cost of replacing mature trees, which provided shelter before the storm, would be enormous.

The Desilets have lost the shingles off their new home once, and they know if they don’t replace the shelter belt, it’s only a matter of time before it happens again.

Desilets said there’s only one option left.

“I guess we’ll just have to borrow from the bank.”