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A FORCE OF NATURE Over in 10 minutes, a powerful rainstorm that struck Elmira Monday left a swath of damage in its wake. Parts of the town were without power for more than three hours.

Although it lasted just 10 minutes, the rainstorm that whipped through Elmira Monday afternoon left a significant amount of damage in its wake.
Gone as quickly as it came, the localized storm snapped trees, toppled poles, and flooded the streets as sewers were overwhelmed by the volume of water. Much of Elmira was left without power for more than three hours.
When the weather system passed, people took to the streets, assessing damage and snapping photos of a storm that was so localized it spared St. Jacobs and Waterloo.
“It was so targeted, so isolated,” said John Janzen of Waterloo North Hydro (WNH).
“I was heading out for lunch and went up to Conestoga Mall, and as I walked into the mall I turned around and saw this really dark, ominous looking cloud north of Waterloo; I thought, ‘boy, that looks like it could be trouble.’ When I came out, my cell phone started ringing about the damage up in Elmira, but at that point in Waterloo the sun was shining. It was one of those things that unless you were in it, you really didn’t have an appreciation for what just happened.”
Before heading south through Bloomingdale and Breslau, and then on to the U.S. via Hamilton and Niagara, the storm, which originated off Lake Huron, inundated Elmira with rain and hail, knocking down trees and utility poles, which were strewn across roadways.
Woolwich Township’s public works building saw its roof peeled off temporarily by the strong gusts of wind that reached speeds between 80 and 100 kilometres per hour.
Almost all of WNH’s available staff hit the streets of Elmira at approximately 1 p.m. – 20 minutes after the storm passed – and a healthy contingent worked well into the evening, said Janzen.
Among some of the issues utility staff had to contend with was repairing a 28,000-volt feeder station on the corner of First Street and Snyder Avenue: a large tree had essentially split in half and ended up taking down the equipment.
By 3:45 p.m., most residents living in the core area of Elmira had their power restored; in some cases, individual residences, especially in the rural areas, had to wait until the evening to see the lights come back on.
While the storm left a big mess, damage was relatively minimal, restricted to a few cars struck by falling branches. Aside from the power outage, crisis issues were at a minimum.
“We did not have to fully invoke our emergency management system, but certainly we had key township staff and officials meeting on a regular basis at the office just to assess and keep abreast of things, said Woolwich chief administrative officer David Brenneman, suggesting what followed was a learning experience.
“It was, in a small-scale way, a good way to test how we deal with emergency management situations, although we didn’t have to call a full control group together, or anything of that nature.”
Debate about whether the storm could in fact be classified a tornado was unleashed as photographs of the storm revealed what appeared to be a funnel cloud. Meteorologists, however, deemed the weather system that ripped through Elmira was more likely a powerful downburst rather than a tornado.
“The fact that the damage was largely at the same time as the rain would indicate that it probably was a downburst lasting about 10 minutes or so; there was some rotation in the clouds that had a little bit of an updraft behind the storm that caused the funnel cloud, probably a separate phenomena,” said Peter Kimbell, a warning-preparedness meteorologist with Environment Canada.
“While significant, nevertheless, in the broad scheme of things it wasn’t that damaging.”

AN ELVIS-INSPIRED PASSION Although he’s best known as a Wellesley Township councillor, Crosshill’s Herb Neher is gaining popularity as an Elvis fan and tribute singer. You can catch him this weekend in Collingwood or Aug. 9 in Linwood.

When not dealing with municipal issues, Wellesley councillor Herb Neher might be found puttering around his backyard, tending to the chickens or reading the paper in the sun, two faithful farm dogs at his feet and a radio pumping oldies from under the cover of his old porch.
There’s also a good chance the retired Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) investigator might be found cruising like the King, belting his own brand of – preferably vibrato heavy – Elvis Presley songs at a tribute show.
In fact, the rock-and-roller-turned-councillor has two shows in the next few weeks: the first is this weekend at the annual Collingwood Elvis Festival; the second, in Linwood on Aug. 9 for the first-ever Kruisin’ With The King at the Linwood rec. complex.
Though he might be relatively new to the Elvis circuit, having started more than a few years ago, Neher’s love affair with old school rock-and-roll goes way back.
“My thing was always music. I always enjoyed music – always, always. You ask anybody and they’ll say, ‘when you’re at Herb’s place, there is always music on,’” he explained.
While his other siblings derived some visual sensitivity from their father, a painter, Neher, whose family made the leap from Munich to Canada when he was nine, got his mother’s ear and voice for music.
“She’s the one that really encouraged me into music.”
Though he knows how to play the guitar, the accordion, the harmonica, and has dabbled with drumming, Neher’s stock in the musical trade is, without a doubt, his voice.
“I was blessed with singing; my mother was a singer – not a professional – but she had a hell of a good voice and always sang,” he said, remembering days spent in the kitchen helping his mother clean the dishes, and learning how to hit high notes and harmonize.
As he grew up, Neher studied music at school and then played with a number of different rock bands in the Toronto area during the late 1960s and early 1970s; one of the more memorable ensembles, The Tonics, saw Neher leading his crew as it blasted out covers of songs by the likes of the Rolling Stones, The Birds and The Animals.
“I was a rock-and-roller,” Neher reminisces with a chuckle. “In those days you had the rock-and-rollers, the slick hairdos back with the ducktails, and then you had the hippies.”
Though he had always liked Elvis Presley, growing up Neher was more in tune with bands that became big during the so called British Invasion. It wasn’t until he discovered that his own voice was well suited to do Elvis covers that he really got interested in ‘the King.’
At a bar one day, Neher thought he’d try something new: instead of belting out a crowd-pleaser like “I Fought the Law” Neher switched it up and instead tried the more emotive “Can’t Help Falling in Love.” When the crowd roared in applause that was more enthusiastic than polite, Neher realized he had tapped into something sweet.
“I tried a Presley song. … All of a sudden I realized that this song came so natural to me, and ‘wow,’” he recounted.
“I had sort of his vibrato, I could do his vibrato that was very unique with Presley, that vibrato, … and it came very, very natural to me … so, I made that sort of my song.”
Some years later, Neher was asked by his girlfriend whether he’d accompany her and her friends to the Elvis festival in Collingwood. He jumped on the chance, and attended the fair as a spectator. It was just a matter of time before Neher returned to take the stage, with a mic in his hand.
“You know what? I can do this. I think I can do this, this is really interesting,” he said to himself.
The rest is history.
Last summer, Neher returned and took the stage in what turned out to be a great show.
“Last year I had a good feel … It’s like when you’re playing pool or billiards: within about the first minute you can tell whether you’re going to have a good game or not. You just know, you have this feeling,” he said, just days before this year’s event.
Now a true-blue fan of Elvis Presley – indeed, one of the rooms in Neher’s home, the Elvis Den, houses a vast array of Elvis memorabilia, from calendars and records, to busts, figures and T-shirts – Neher is happy to announce that Linwood will be hosting its own Elvis event, Kruisin’ With the King, in Linwood Aug. 9.
Kicking off at 1 p.m., Kruisin’ With the King will feature a classic car show at 1 p.m., and music courtesy of some seven Elvis tribute artists from as far as Oshawa and Toronto, including Neher, taking the stage starting at 3 p.m.
Each singer will perform twice. Also on tap at the event are food and beverages. Donations will be collected by the Linwood Firefighters, the Linwood Rod and Gun Club and the Lions Club.
Admission is free. For more information, call 519-698-2019 or 519-698-2553.

UNEXPECTED INSULATION Barry Briere was recently surprised and delighted to find a map and newspapers from the early 1900s in the attic of his Elmira home. He plans to learn more about the collection and ways the items can be preserved.

A rewiring project recently turned into a history lesson for Elmira’s Barry Briere, who uncovered a map of Waterloo County from 1908 and copies of the Elmira Signet from the early 1900s in his attic joists.
When his Park Street house was built around 1907, insulation was not readily available so builders filled the walls with “scrap” paper, he noted.
Finding these relics has increased Briere’s interest in the house that he and his wife purchased two years ago.
“We like old houses. They’ve got a lot of character. Obviously you’re not going to find old maps in your new house.”
Briere has enjoyed taking a step back in time by reading the newspaper advertisements for houses to buy in Toronto ranging from $3,100 to $27,000; a copy of the Toronto Evening Telegram from 1924 even shows monthly rents for $12.
“It’s really neat looking at the old prices of things.”
Briere also got a kick out of the cost of a year’s subscription to the Signet (one dollar) and from reading about the Elmira Fall Fair of 1917.
“That’s pretty cool.”
Waterloo Historical Society president Rych Mills said Briere’s collection sounds interesting and would be worth a trip up to Elmira to check out.
“One of the great things that historians love getting calls of is, ‘I just bought a house and in the attic I found …’ because to me, my personal goal would be to be the dictator of attics in Waterloo County. I would love to crawl into every attic that there is and see what’s up there. It’s really amazing what is found there and people when they find old things, they just love finding out about them.”
Briere said he would like to know more about the map, which he plans to have restored and mounted.
Mills said that diagram may have been offered as a premium for subscribing to a newspaper at the time or, since it was printed by a Toronto publishing company and is bordered by Toronto ads, it may have been used to entice country folk to visit the city.
As far as the monetary value of the found treasures, that would depend on finding an interested buyer.
“You might find some obsessed guy like me, who might pay $100 for the map.”
Or, it could sit on a site like eBay for three years with no interest.
“People often think, ‘well old equals valuable’ … and a lot of times, old equals awful. But, historical objects, especially of a local history interest, are valuable more in an historical sense than in a monetary value. … There’s nothing not worth anything historically,” Mills said.
The map is of particular interest to the historical society as “they are heavily used by researchers and genealogists in the Grace Schmidt Room [at the Kitchener Public Library] and often provide that missing piece of information about a locality or area,” explained librarian Karen Ball-Pyatt.
As well, the newspapers can sometimes be used to fill gaps in the library’s microfilm collection.
Regardless of what Briere decides to do with the historic finds, however, Mills urged him to keep them in good condition, including removing them from light and humidity.
“Newspapers are a tough call. If the attic was dry, that was probably the best place. … Don’t let the dog sit on them, don’t put your coffee mug on them [and] the three enemies of anything made of paper are light, vermin and moisture.”
Laminating old papers or covering them in plastic are no-nos too, he added.
“A good rule of thumb is that anything you do to try to preserve something is probably harming it.”
Mills suggested wrapping the old newspapers in new ones so that if there is moisture in the air it will absorb outwards.
“But put a big note on top of them so that two years from now he doesn’t forget and just toss out that pile of newspapers,” he added.
Unfortunately, the landfill is where many antiques end up as people move and clean out their old “junk.”
“People die, people move and they forget. You know, granny might have squirreled all these things away because it was part of her childhood but once she passed on, the grandkids [said], ‘this is just granny’s junk …’
“The scary thing is, whenever you do get something, the corollary [is] you think about what’s been tossed out in the meantime. So, probably for every one thing saved, there’s 100 things gone to the dump – and that’s the crying shame.”
If Briere does find anything else in his attic, even envelopes with nothing in them, they are of interest to historians and should not be thrown out, Mills said.
“Now we want the minutiae of life: the social district context – calendars, stuff that gets stuck through your mailbox in 1940 telling you all about the rationing system, things like that. So, anything he’s got, instead of throwing it in the garbage, put it in a box.”

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