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It was a magical place.....what a storm and another is on its way..http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20061221.wxbcstormpark21/BNStory/National
MARK HUME
From Thursday's Globe and Mail
VANCOUVER — Work crews are still cleaning up the damage left behind six days ago in Stanley Park, one of Canada's best known and most beloved urban green spaces, where towering trees up to 500 years old have been shattered, snapped in half or uprooted.
One homeless man, who was in the 400-hectare park the night of the storm, said it felt and sounded like "an artillery barrage" as hurricane-force winds ripped through, blocking roads and paths with fallen trees.
Parts of the Seawall Promenade, where former U.S. president Bill Clinton jogged during the 1993 U.S.-Soviet summit and where movie stars mingle with the locals, have been torn apart, with stone blocks hurled six metres through the air and fissures snaking through the pavement.
Stanley Park -- much of which is now behind safety barricades and yellow caution tape -- is more than just urban green space. It is British Columbia's top tourist attraction, drawing eight million visitors a year. And it is an emotional touchstone for city residents, who walk, jog and in-line skate around the encircling seawall in even the worst weather, get married in its rose garden, and are remembered in death by plaques on park benches.
It is such a revered place that when the immensely popular Vancouver Aquarium proposed an expansion into green space this year it triggered a huge public debate. When the city sought to widen Lions Gate Bridge Road by a few metres in 2000, it had to face protesters hanging from branches in hammocks in an attempt to stop a few trees from being felled.
But when winds, with gusts of up to 120 kilometres an hour, hit last week, all the love in the world couldn't save Stanley Park's forest, which features trees up to 800 years old and 76 metres tall.
An estimated 3,000 trees fell, and while no one has yet detailed the damage, it is clear some of the great old giants are gone, including at least one 30 metres in height and up to two metres thick.
A tree of that size could be 500 years old, said Joe Foy of the Western Canada Wilderness Committee.
"You can't know for certain until you count the growth rings, but a tree that big was here long before we [European explorers] first showed up."
Mayor Sam Sullivan got a firsthand look at the damage yesterday and he was stunned by what he saw.
"This is a national treasure, it's a provincial treasure. In fact, people from all over the world come here to one of the most visited sites in Vancouver, and to see the devastation around this now is quite emotional," Mr. Sullivan said, after he'd piloted his power wheelchair over a carpet of broken branches to reach the Prospect Point lookout.
"It's pretty stunning the stuff that I've seen," he said.
"I couldn't get access a few days ago, but now that I actually see these beautiful sites that all of us have really accepted as icons for the city, it's a real blow."
With chainsaws whining in the background and a Caterpillar front-end loader scooping up huge buckets of broken trees, Mr. Sullivan said he would seek federal and provincial help to restore the park.
"Our No. 1 priority . . . is helping to restore this park to its former glory," Mr. Sullivan said.
Ian Robertson, vice-chairman of the park board, said work crews have been working 14-hour days to reopen the park, more than half of which remains off limits.
"As the crews go around any corner and they see trees that are down, they'll take care of those trees but then they'll move on and see more trees. And right now our first priority is to ensure that the park is safe. So we don't want anyone venturing in here in their vehicle, around Park Drive, until we determine that it is safe," Mr. Robertson said.
But some people couldn't wait.
Mike McKone slipped his bike past road barricades yesterday and cycled deep into the park.
"I've never seen anything like this," he said looking at a patch of forest flattened by the wind.
"It's truly amazing. I just thought I had to come because this is historic. It's unbelievable."
For one homeless man it was all too real.
"It was the most terrifying night of my life. It was like an artillery barrage," he said of the storm, which struck in full force about 3 a.m. last Friday.
The man, who didn't want to give his name, said he had lived in the park for 15 years. He emerged from the forest in a closed area, near Third Beach, dressed from head to toe in green rain slickers and carrying his possessions in a backpack.
"Three times it came down," he said of the storm winds. "It sounded like a freight train. You couldn't hear the trees falling because the wind was so loud."
The man, who looked to be in his late 40s and had long hair tucked under a hood, said there was so much flying debris that he was afraid to run.
"I couldn't get out," he said. "I just sat still for three hours. I was up to tremor fear. Do you know what that is? It's the first level of battle fatigue. Every muscle tenses up because you are shaking so hard."
The man said at dawn he found hundreds of trees down. He wasn't injured, but said other homeless people (between 20 and 50 are thought to live in the park) may not have been so lucky.
"We're still looking for a couple of friends," he said. "We don't know if they are alive or dead . . . If there's nobody dead, we're really lucky."
He said he'd visited one man's camp and found it buried under forest debris.
"It doesn't smell like he's dead under there," he said. "If there are any dead they will be buried under all that stuff, so it will be a while before we know."
AREAS OF TREE DAMAGE
Hurricane-force winds ripped across English Bay and struck the west side of Stanley Park the hardest, causing extensive blowdowns of timber.
Trees were flattened in the interior of the park, blocking numerous trails. Park crews are working 14-hour days trying to make the roads and trails safe so the public can return, but more than half of the area remains closed. It is unlikely the park will be opened until the middle of next week.
DAMAGE TO SEAWALL
The Seawall Promenade has been damaged by falling trees, waves and landslides down some of the steep cliffs. Paving stones have been broken and some were tossed more than six metres. Wave action undercut some sections of the waterfront walk, causing cracks in the pavement. No estimate of repair time has yet been made.
STANLEY PARK CAUSEWAY OPEN
The main highway route through the middle of Stanley Park, connecting to Lions Gate Bridge, remains open to traffic in all lanes and in both directions.
PIPELINE ROAD AND WEST
Vehicle access to the east side of the park is open on Park Drive, Pipeline Road and Avison Way, but access to the west side of the park, including North Lagoon Drive, is closed. Park Drive is passable only as far as Pipeline Road. Park officials hope to have all driving routes open by the middle of next week, but no firm date has been set. There is no bus service into the park but service is available as far as the round
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