'Pure Devastation": Musselman Lake residents clean after storm wallops the community

Homes and businesses in the Musselman's Lake area were crushed by the storm May 21

Yorkregion.com
May 27, 2022
Simon Martin

Musselman’s Lake was abuzz with activity after the May long weekend. But it wasn’t from the usual start-of-summer vibes. Chainsaws, hydro trucks and woodchoppers were out in full force after a huge storm knocked out power and trees and temporarily closed Cedar Beach resort in the community May 21.

George Karpouzis and Eric Bartnes were out fixing up the outside of the Cedar Beach Variety Store. Karpouzis, who runs the store, said he was lucky there wasn’t more damage as he screwed together picnic tables and umbrellas. Not everyone was so lucky. Bartnes was out in Newmarket on his motorcycle at the time and just beat the storm. “I just made it into my garage before all hell broke loose. I have seen nothing like that. It was pure devastation,” he said. “The real story were how little injuries there were.”

John Sobiesiak has lived on the lake for 28 years and has never seen storm like it. “A wall of rain and wind came and everything just collapsed,” he said. “I lost two cars. A big tree landed on two cars.”

The scene was pure chaos, with wires and trees everywhere, Sobiesiak said. “I couldn’t get out of my place for two days. It was pretty bad,” he said.

Devastation also came to the popular seasonal outdoor dining spot Fishbone By The Lake. Owner Pedro Pereira said he suffered upwards of $500,000 in physical damages.

“Then the cleanup, business interruption, staffing, product, etc. just keeps adding up,” he said. “The amount of power this storm gained coming off the water, it was visibly like a tsunami and hurricane coming towards the beach based on the direction of this storm and footage we have.”

For some, the storm means a loss of a home as Cedar Beach Resort had to close as it cleans up damaged and dangerous trees in the park. Eric Buiter was trying to figure out what to do after driving up from Niagara to check on his trailer. “I’m homeless for the time being,” he said. He was planning to stay at the park while he worked on a summer contract in the area. He now said he has to stay with a co-worker for the time being and hopes the park can open shortly. “I’m not just up here on weekends to come and vacation,” he said.

In J.P. Lyrette’s 23 years living on Musselman’s Lake, he said he’s never seen a storm quite like the one that came on May 21. The sheer force of it toppled a tree onto his car, smashing it. “These things happen. That’s what insurance is for,” he said. 

Musselman’s Lake native and arborist Jennifer Carroll was busy removing a fallen tree from on top of a house with her company Tree Effects. The only storm that has done this much damage to trees in recent memory was the 2013 ice storm. “It’s going to take a long time to clean up,” she said. According to Carroll, there are a lot of damaged trees that pose hazards and will have to be taken down.

Karpouzis said a silver lining in all that happened was how everybody helped each other. “The community has banded together to really help each other out. It was chaos. It was scary,” he said. He said Alec Cloke from Untied Soils down the road brought in caterers with food for everybody.

Environment Canada has now deemed the incident east of Musselman’s Lake in Uxbridge an F2 Tornado, while people around the lake are still struggling to classify what happened. “You can call it whatever the hell you want, but it wiped out here to Uxbridge,” Bartnes said.