MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTY — Nearly two months after the tornado that on July 7 touched down in the Bergen area, a couple who had found their perfect retirement place are no longer certain about the future.
JoAnne Dulaney and her husband Steve Nedoshytko had purchased the heavily-treed, five-acre parcel with a recreational vehicle and some storage outbuildings just a couple of years ago to escape the hustle and bustle of urban living.
“It was our retreat and we had hopes and dreams of sharing our property with family and friends,” she wrote by email on Aug. 25 in response to questions.
Affectionately naming their property “Bergen Brook,” she said the land featured “a tree-canopied laneway that wound its way across a small creek that flowed year-long.”
Planning to eventually develop the property, she said they installed a well and underground powerlines to avoid damaging trees or the creek.
“That was our dream,” she said.
But the tornado brought those dreams crashing down right alongside 90 per cent of their trees as well as their RV and outbuildings.
“Our dream was crushed in the matter of minutes,” she said, adding their trailer was flipped and crashed on its side, now a total write-off.
“Our garden sheds were blown apart and strewn who knows where,” she said, going onto describe the full extent of the damage that included but was not limited to a play structure that was blown away, as well as a Seacan that the wind scooped up and threw some more than nine metres (30 feet) away.
“Now, it looks like a war zone,” she said about the property, adding they initially could not even so much as drive down their laneway due to felled trees blocking the way.
While the lane has since been cleared to restore access, the rest of the property remains a shattered shadow of its former self, the creek obscured by fallen trees, the spring now inaccessible.
“Our property is no longer a peaceful place to be,” she lamented. “We can’t walk through the wooded area because of fallen trees. Our property is pretty much worthless.”
The psychological aftermath has left the couple reeling.
“If we think about it too much, that sick feeling comes over us,” she said, adding they’ve instead tried to focus on a positive mindset.
Helping maintain their morale amid such adversity has been support.
“We have been blessed by many friends and family coming to help us, which has made the trash clean-up easier,” she said.
“We have had many, many of our personal friends and family come from near and far to help us,” she said. “The Sundre and Bergen community has also reached out to us but we have not needed their help yet. We have been blessed by meeting our neighbors and exchanging stories.
Dulaney went onto express gratitude to their neighours Judy and John Bargholz, whose property was also hit hard by the storm, for having hosted volunteer crews during lunchtime and as a pit stop over a couple of work days.
But with felled trees still scattered about, the sick feeling in the pit of the Dulaneys’ stomachs is never far away.
“How do we clean those up when the task is so monumental? We are hopeful for support in getting the property to a point where we can at least have some hope,” she said.
Mountain View County was able to provide “minimal” assistance by way of offering some gravel, she said.
But she felt more could have been done to help remove debris, whether by making available trucks or even perhaps waiving a dumping fee at the landfill.
As of the time she contacted the Albertan, Dulaney said the provincial government had not come forward to offer any kind of help.
“We are being told that the Mountain View County has submitted the paperwork for the Disaster Recover Program, but that the answer may take up to 90 days,” she said.
“My understanding is that the affected landowners are – at the very least – hopeful for financial assistance to cover uninsurable losses,” such as remediation of the tree damage as well as fences.
While other items were covered by insurance, Dulaney said even that’s been a struggle.
“We have certainly had to ‘fight’ for some items on our claim,” she said.
What happens next might well play a part in determining where they’ll go from here.
“No decisions have been made as to what will happen to our property,” she said in response to being asked whether they intend to rebuild.
“We have to deal with the fallen trees first.”