Tornado losses mount in Lewis and Turin, but so does determination

Aug. 18—LOWVILLE — He couldn't believe it took less than a minute to devastate the home that took four generations of his family to make just the way it was.

As Joseph C. Sins walked around his family's home on Fish Creek Road in the town of Lewis, he pointed out what is already missing now that the grounds have been partially cleared of the debris and tree parts that were left behind by the tornado on Aug. 7.

A balsam planted when his sister, who is now in her 60s, was a year old; an apple tree "that's been here even longer"; the walnut tree his father planted, the swingset he built for his children — every step, every glance, a memory.

"When I was growing up, I was scared of tornados. I don't know why," said the 56-year-old father of two adult children and stepfather to one, acknowledging there was no particular reason for it.

Now he can say he lived through his worst fear.

Sins grew up in the house on the hill overlooking pasture land for miles, and so did his father and his children who are now in their 20s, but for the first time in his life, the Sins family home is not safe.

Since the natural disaster, he and his wife, Catherine A. Sins, have been staying at a friend's home in Rome, Oneida County, while they have been away on vacation. But this weekend, that the friend will return so they are working on figuring out what is next, learning about what their homeowners insurance will and won't cover and what accommodation is even available.

They do not know when or if they can return to their home. They do not know if they can salvage the structure or will have to tear it down which feels to him like losing so much more than a house.

Sins was home alone on Aug. 7 when he received a text from the National Weather Service about a tornado warning for nearby Oneida County and a text from his wife suggesting he make sure their animals — two horses, two cows, pigs and two dogs — were inside because hail was predicted.

"I don't remember hearing the tornado, but it was raining," he said, after going into the pole barn to call the animals. Only the horses responded.

"These two doors (on the barn) were blowing out just about horizontally and I'm trying to grab them. Stuff was flying around all over and I looked up just in time to see the back (roof on the house) flip over onto the front (of the house) before it disintegrated. Then I kind of walked out and everything had calmed right down."

The tornado passed across the field and into the treeline, continuing toward Turin and its next victims — the Snow Ridge Ski Resort and West Wind Motel and Townhouses, neighbors on Route 26 just north of the village line.

Filippo "Tony" LoGuidice saw the frothing funnel coming across the fields in front of his house on Mud Lake Road, but not toward where he and his wife Susan LoGuidice live. It was heading toward the rental home on their property next to a two-stall, two-story garage and a massive old barn full of hay and equipment.

"After I saw the trees fly by — they were going all over the field — and then it only last about 45 seconds," Tony LoGuidice said.

Susan said she was on the telephone speaking to a friend.

"I didn't even know it happened," she said.

An entire corner of the garage was yanked out of the structure including the corner support and part of a wall in addition to one of the stall doors, metal siding and roofing panels flew away; the door on the unoccupied rental house was blown into the kitchen, a number of windows were broken, the wooden stairs were blown to pieces and the wind wreaked havoc on the indoors, too.

The barn was lifted off its foundation and the roof collapsed on all the hay stored by Gene and Darryl Kent, the farmers who sold the LoGuidices the property and have since become like family, said Susan LoGuidice.

The couple is worried about the income they have lost now that the rental is uninhabitable and where they will store their equipment for the winter, which suddenly seems much closer. They are hopeful their insurance company will at least start giving them some funds toward getting the garage stable and the totalled barn addressed. The daunting task of finding a reliable contractor who is not already busy has been frustrating, but they have not given up.

Everyone impacted by the storm is still trying to assess the damage, what will need fixing or replacing, so that an accurate list can be provided to their insurance companies, but even with insurance, there are significant expenses that will not be covered.

Enter support via crowd-sourcing on GoFundMe.

Snow Ridge's "Raise the Ridge" fundraiser to help cover the cost of tree removal, which insurance will not, has seen 242 donations totalling $27,616 of the $50,000 goal set with many contributions from other ski resorts in the state that would normally be their competition, said Snow Ridge co-owner Nick Mir.

Restore the West Wind has raised $6,364 through 37 donations on the platform, also heading toward a $50,000 goal, and Joe Sins' niece Melinda Lintz set up a fundraiser that has brought in $3,495 of the $5,000 goal she set with 26 donations.

Under the heading "Tornado relief needed for family home," Lintz shared that the house "has been in our family for over 100 years" along with some details of the damage.

Her uncle said he hopes to do everything he can to save the structure even though it will definitely need gutting, but a lot depends on the state of the foundation and the overall cost.

The main focus for cleanup for all four sets of victims of the tornado has, so far, been moving out downed and unsafe trees, creating piles of sheet metal torn off their properties and trying to rescue what they could from the damaged structures before the seemingly endless rain this month rendered it all worthless.

They also all said they could not have gotten so much done without the help of their communities, friends and families.

"Local people have come and they've been wonderful. They helped pull all the stuff out of the house," Sins said moments before a neighbor pulled up with her window rolled down, "I'm so sorry, Joe. If there's anything you need..."

Nicole A. Sadowski, who co-owns West Wind with her husband Timothy J. Sadowski, said friends and relatives from their native Long Island came up last weekend to join their local friends and family in Turin, including the Turin Ridge Riders snowmobile club, to help.

For now, the Sadowskis are in a bit of a holding pattern until an engineer can assess the state of the buildings, but a new metal roof was being installed on the motel to prevent further water damage and they know they will have to demolish the old Victorian home that was renovated into two townhouses.

Local support has helped Sadowski find a temporary location to hold stationary bike "spin" classes four days a week at the former Port Leyden elementary school, now the Port Leyden Portal owned by Mark and Kimberly Lemieux. A local mechanic has agreed to let Tim Sadowski work on their snowmobiles to prepare them for rental over the winter, especially as the family will be losing significant rental income with all of their properties unusable, she said.

Their former townhouse tenant, Kim M. Long and her son Edward, have found an apartment, according Nicole said, and the other couple have moved onto their next project out of town for now.

Snow Ridge has hired a local logger to carefully remove the trees from the chairlift cables which are pulled to maximum tension and could release like a sling shot if the weight is not removed with care, but Mir said the community has rallied support. A volunteer day will be held on Saturday, with Snow Ridge providing lunch.

There is still a tremendous amount of work to be done and significant uncertainty for those impacted, but they are determined not to let a tornado take them off their course.