O Canada! > Canadian > Canadian Chat > [Weather] St. Benoit Tornado

[Weather] St. Benoit Tornado

Grand Fresniere Presbyterian Church as it was

The church building today

The front of the church

Just read about it, confirmed F-1 tornado (accord to The Weather Network and Environment Canada). Looks like the church took a direct hit. Doesn't take much, though winds can be up to 180KPH with a F-1.
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If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. - Albert Einstein

reply to DKS
It hit very hard in the area. Came out of nowhere.

How old was that church?

reply to DKS
How unfortunate, for a small country church it was very ornate. Externally it looked well maintained, had a slate roof (could have been original) and built with solid brick walls as well (though the inside bricks may not have been cemented). It looks like part of the structure collapsed into the grave yard damaging the monuments. Was it a direct hit or is this due to wind loading and or differential pressure?

I realize it’s not in use, but it would be nice if they could rebuild it. Driving around down in SW Ontario one gets tired of seeing abandoned driveways to farmhouses that no longer exist, and singular monuments of fragmented gravestones cemented together which once marked a vibrant community church and its worshipers final resting place.

reply to DKS
What role does the 'community board' play? Do they run Ecumenical services there, or was it no longer used at all as a church?

(Just curious)
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"The hardest thing about any political campaign is how to win without proving that you are unworthy of winning." ~ Adlai E. Stevenson

reply to Thane_Bitter

It's sad to see such a nice building gone and the fact that anglos are so few in the area makes it that much worse. Hopefully they'll put up something to commemorate the building and community that once was there.

That area around old St. Eustache is nice. The old section is very small, but very nice. Every imaginable micro-brew is on tap there too as an added bonus. Cute little place. Sometime I would go there during a quiet afternoon just to kick back.

Behind that church they clear a section of the river for the kids still to this day to skate in winter. Think they've been doing that for over a century at the same spot.

I wonder if they will ask people to donate to put something up in St. Benoit. It's possible the gov might kick in a small something considering the circumstances as well. Or I wonder if the group had some insurance. Stuff to find out to see what's going to happen...

Yeah I saw the cannon ball marks. Wasn't aware of the whole history of it though. Never even knew they sent the french "prisoners" to Australia.
»en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_···Eustache

Seems Saint-Benoît gets an honourable mention as well...

St Eustache is also the only place I know of that opens their race track to the kids in summer so the kids can get the "need for speed" out of their system and show off the cars they have. Guess it's better than racing on the 640.

reply to DKS
Man that's gotta be a real heart breaker for you DKS

Here's hoping it gets rebuilt

Money is supposed to be coming in from the gov for the farmers there to rebuild, but this isn't a farm so I will be curious how this is addressed. If it is.

reply to DKS
This is the latest from the community at Grand Fresniere:

quote:

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As the church is basically gone and some of the tombstanes and graveyard damaged it looks like a memoral monument will be built. Donations will be needed for the monument and as for the church there was no insurance. As usual the cemetery group is planning a memorial service and meeting on the third Sunday of August in Fresniere.

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