ORO-MEDONTE - As president of the Oro-Medonte Chamber of Commerce and Tourism, Luke Sedgwick has spent a good chunk of his time promoting township businesses and local tourism.
But now that his own business is at risk — a victim of last weekend’s ice storm — his focus is going to be a little closer to home.
He’s been overwhelmed with a myriad of emotions — sadness and defeat one moment, and inspiration and commitment to rebuilding the next.
Walking the grounds of Glen Oro Eco Retreat, located on Line 10 North in Oro-Medonte, between Bass Lake Sideroad and Horseshoe Valley Road, it’s easy to understand Sedgwick’s flip-flopping emotional state.
The formerly idyllic forest has all the hallmarks of being the epicentre of a high-intensity explosion.
The hillside looks like a fire has blazed through.
The trees — limbless, topless sticks — protrude from the ground like massive spears, their tips pointed where they snapped off under the weight of the accumulated ice.
“I was in shock for the first couple of days,” Sedgwick said Friday afternoon as crews worked to remove the fallen debris and repair the damaged geodesic domes and tents that provide a tranquil oasis for folks looking to connect with the rugged and unadorned Canadian landscape.
“It’s like waves of stress and anxiety and responsibility on the one hand, and on the other, it’s left foot, right foot — just start doing the work that needs to be done.
“It’s overwhelming,” he said.
The tragedy began last Friday night, when a “micro-wind” blew up, Sedgwick said.
“It ripped the top off a few trees and brought down a few tree limbs but was relatively minor,” he said.
Come Saturday morning, it was a major concern.
“Branches started falling and trees started falling. You’d go outside and it would be every 10 or 15 seconds you’d hear trees popping and crashing down,” Sedgwick recalled
“By Sunday night, it was catastrophic.”
With many of the domes and tents booked for the weekend, guests began to leave Friday night, when the storm started to build. By the end of Saturday, all but one had left.
“We were incredibly lucky,” Sedgwick said. “We had guests, but everyone got out safely and nobody — guests or staff — (was) injured.”
Sedgwick’s nine domes and five tents weren’t as fortunate.
“We had damage to 11 of the 14 structures, five of them with massive structural damage,” he said.
While it’s still too early to have a firm estimate on the cost of repairs, Sedgwick thinks it’s going to cost him about $200,000 to repair the damaged units and another $100,000 to clean up the debris.
He said he’s been going back and forth with his insurance provider and things don’t look good.
“It’s looking like insurance might not be able to help us with this situation,” he said.
“They don’t cover ice. They do cover wind, but they don’t cover wind and ice together.”
He admits he doesn’t know what that means for his future.
He said he’s been close to calling it quits a few times since he started the eco-tourism business eight years ago, but he’s always soldiered on, confident he’s offering an experience people want and need.
Visitors from around the world have heaped praise on the business, and it’s been added to a number of ‘best of’ lists by guests and critics.
But cash flow, Sedgwick said, could become an issue.
“We had pretty good occupancy coming up — full on the weekends and mid-week. Now, we have to refund all this money, we have to rebuild some units and get materials from lots of manufacturers,” he said.
“It’s not impossible.”
He’s weighing the option of reopening with fewer units available.
“The interiors are all in great condition and we’re working to shore up the compromised units, but we’ll have to see where we are once we’ve done a full inventory of what we need,” he said.
He’s hoping the province can free up some funds, now that Premier Doug Ford has had an opportunity to tour the area and see the devastation first-hand.
“It’s been declared a state of emergency, so I think the government should be able to set aside some funds for folks who have been affected by this. We’re an area looking for some relief,” Sedgwick said.
“We’re normally a pretty self-sufficient group of people, but this time, we need help.”
