Re: Luthiery shop lost.

Thanks for the thoughts. Not the US: we're in the Madawaska Valley in
eastern Ontario Canada, about 100 miles west of Ottawa. It's a bush area,
not many humans. Renfrew County is the largest in Ontario with just over
3,000 square miles and only around 85,000 people mostly spread between 3
small cities and a few towns. Our hamlet, Rockingham has 24 people after
the schoolbus leaves.

Much of the damage was to tourist parks and lodges, with trailers and
cottages destroyed in seconds. Damage to timber is horrific.

No, we don't usually get this sort of activity here at all but in the last
4 years or so it's started to become more common. We've had several small
twisters this summer, but never one which has done this sort of damage.

KH
"Tony Done" <tonydone@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:Z8SCg.10326$rP1.8527@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Kevin Hall" <timberline@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:12dnnbii55grob5@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Last Wed. evening a force 3 tornado came through our area, ripping homes
and trees to shreds and making a lot of my neighbours homeless. During
the height of the storm lightning struck very near us somewhere in the
bush. The light and the clap were simultaneous. Apparently the
lightning travelled through the ground and cooked the wiring in my shop,
setting the place ablaze.

The local volunteer fire dept. miraculously saved the building, and the
fire didn't get into my loft or even damage the many sitka and cedar
billets that are stored there, but the shop on one side and the garage
where I restore my classic bikes on the other are gutted.

I've lost all my hand tools, most of my machinery, 3 old Martins, 5 of
my own guitars under construction and a run of 8 ukes including a repro
of a pre-war Martin 5k.

Possibly the worst blow is the loss of notes and patterns taken from
almost 40 years of working on a wide variety of instruments.

On the bright side of the coin we have almost enough insurance to cover
our losses and to rebuild the shop. Both Debbie and I are safe and in
good shape.

In comparison with many others in the area we have been very lucky
indeed. Some homes were blown into the Madawaska river, two tourist
campgrounds had their 150 yr. old pine trees blown completely away and
virtually all the trailers in them rolled up like beer cans. Hundreds
of vehicles are smashed beyond reclamation.

Unbelievably, there were no serious injuries other than one broken leg
in the area.

I'm not looking for sympathy here; just letting others know this stuff
does happen, and when it does you better hope you have enough insurance
to cover your risk. Buying a shop full of stuff one piece at a time
over many years is pretty easy, but trying to replace it at one go would
be very painful indeed. Deb and I have been amazed at just how much
stuff was actually in that building, and at the cost of replacement at
current prices. But for replacement value insurance we'd be in a pickle.
Other builders and/or repairfolks may want to consider making backup
copies of things like guitar specs and the notes most of us make about
what worked and what didn't.

All the best,
KH


That's a sad loss - the insurance won't buy back the history. But as Ed
says, there was no loss of life and limb.

Which part of the US is that? Are major storms common there?

Tony D






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Relevant Pages

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