Dive Teams, Choppers Search For Man Missing After Tornado

Dive teams and helicopters continued to scour a northwestern Ontario lake Saturday for a man who vanished after a tornado ripped through a hunting and fishing resort.

The twister touched down Thursday night at the Fisherman’s Cove Resort on Lac Seul, about 15 kilometres south of Ear Falls, Ont.

Search teams have spent the past two days looking for Dennis Kinkaid of Ponca City, Olka., after the cabin he was in was ripped from its foundation and tossed into the water almost a kilometre away.

“They’re still searching in the water,” said his wife Dayna Kinkaid from her home in Oklahoma. “I can’t even explain how I feel right now.”

The bodies of two other men who were also in the cabin, Bernie Jackson, 65, and Stan Hollis, 78, were pulled from the water yesterday.

Kinkaid said her 66-year-old husband was on a fishing trip with Jackson and Hollis. The trio have been driving up to Canada for the past 23 years for an annual vacation, she said. They were to return home on Saturday.

“This was a guys trip,” she said. “That was one of their favourite destinations.”

Kinkaid said police have shown her pictures of where the twister hit and have done a very good job of keeping her updated on search efforts.

“The twister just levelled that cabin,” she said. “I guess there’s only so much that can be done.”

The Ontario Provincial Police said they had no new information on Kinkaid’s whereabouts as yet.

The tornado ranked as an F2 with wind speeds between 180 and 240 kilometres per hour, said Geoff Coulson an Environment Canada meteorologist.

Five other people suffered minor injuries when their cabin was also lifted off the ground by the twister.

Coulson said two cabins which were airborne suffered the brunt of the damage while the rest of the resort was pelted with flying debris.

“This was a very very significant event,” said Coulson.

Bruce Hollis, 54, said the twister hit his father’s cabin head on.

Hollis said his father was two weeks away from his 79th birthday when he set out for the fishing trip.

Stan Hollis and Jackson were both retired teachers, Kinkaid is a semi-retired businessman. All three had been friends for a number of years.

“This is a small community and this town is going to be pretty well shut down for the next few days,” said Bruce Hollis from his Ponca City home.

Tourists and resort operators spent Friday clearing up the debris that had scattered through northwestern locale popular for hunting and fishing.

Staff at Fisherman’s Cove Resort said they were open for business as usual on Saturday. They refused to comment on the search efforts.

Ear Falls is about two hours north of Dryden, Ont.