Grain elevators running soon despite tornado damage

Thursday, August 25, 2011

by BETTER FARMING STAFF

Grain elevators in Goderich have sustained millions of dollars in tornado damage but their owners anticipate they will be accepting wheat by Friday and loading a boat early next week.

“It’s a busy time of year and we’re just trying to get up and running as fast as we possibly can,” says Don Henry, president of Southpier Terminals, the company that owns the elevators in the town’s harbour.

The tornado that reached speeds of up to 300 kilometres an hour tore through the Huron County port on Sunday killing one person and causing power outages as well as major damage to homes and businesses. The town’s mayor, Deb Shewfelt, has declared a state of emergency and on Monday Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty pledged $5 million in provincial disaster relief.

Henry says one of the elevator’s storage buildings was destroyed and currently the facility has partial power. “One of the big difficulties right at this minute is getting trucks through town because there’s so many streets blocked and hydro lines down and there’s a state of emergency downtown,” he says.

Henry says the elevators were probably 50 per cent through dealing with this year’s wheat harvest and were handling between 160 and 170 trucks a day when the tornado struck.

According to the company’s website, Southpier’s Goderich and Port Colborne facilities have a combined storage capacity of 200,000 metric tonnes. BF