Weekend storm 'heartbreaking' for Essex Fun Fest vendors, organizer says

Weekend storm 'heartbreaking' for Essex Fun Fest vendors, organizer says

The community remains optimistic despite the estimated hundreds of thousands in damages

For local business owner Amanda Clark, the second day of the Essex Fun Fest was running smoothly.

Suddenly, the co-owner of Cottam Candy watched as the weather quickly change for the worst.

"The wind picked up out of nowhere — just a wall of wind," Clark said. "The rain came down really hard, sideways. We watched tents just flipped."

Winds travelling more than 110 kilometres-per-hour ravaged through the Essex Fun Fest on Friday, with the extreme weather shift triggering the evacuation of 1,600 visitors into the nearby Essex Arena.

Essex Fun Fest co-chair Richard Tapping said the scene was unpredictable.

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"It was hard to determine what was really going on because most people were sheltered in the arena," Tapping said.

He said once the storm passed, the true extent of the damage was revealed.

"I don't have any estimate on damage. I just know that we're talking in the hundreds of thousands of dollars," Tapping said.

He says the price estimate is due to several factors including equipment damage, loss of live entertainment, and loss of revenue.

Clark says the aftermath isn't easy to confront.

"It's unsettling," Clark said. "Your adrenaline is pumping, and probably in the days after, you're going to have a little bit of a crash where you really think about 'you're grateful, you're okay, your fellow vendors [are okay].'"

"I think there are businesses, especially the handmade vendors, that probably lost everything they brought with them ... there are quite a few vendors that lost their whole business and have to kind of start from scratch, which is very unfortunate."

Despite the immense damage, Tapping said locals came in droves to help with event reconstruction.

"Within twenty minutes, we had people assisting us picking up garbage, putting up fencing, putting up signs again," Tapping said. "Our volunteers are tired, our committee members are sore and tired ... but we did it."

He said community members worked until 4 a.m. Saturday to rebuild the mess the storm created.

Canadian Tire Essex offered to double their corporate sponsorship, while local restaurant OG Pizza provided food to feed the late-night crews.

Clark said that as soon as word of the damage spread, the community helped without hesitation.

"Our business received hundreds and hundreds of comments, messages, texts from friends and family just checking in to see if we needed anything, making sure that we were okay," she said.

By Saturday morning, the festival grounds were transformed into familiar form and gates were opened.

Tapping says watching the situation be reversed so quickly is a testament to the community.

"It's emotional for the team to see exactly how the community came together to rebuild," he said.

"It's not for the festival members — we do it for our people of Essex."

Justin Escoto is a reporter at CBC Windsor. He is a graduate of Carleton University, and previously worked at the Canadian Press and the Charlatan. He enjoys covering music, history, and pro wrestling. You can reach him at justin.escoto@cbc.ca.