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Hurricane Irene puts this marriage off to a stormy start
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The Toronto Star- Wendy Gillis Staff Reporter
An uninvited guest surprised Auste Kuolas and Jonas Didzbalis on their big day last weekend, and Irene was no ordinary wedding crasher.
The Toronto bride and groom and 103 of their guests became stranded at a remote children’s camp in Vermont after devastating flooding caused by Hurricane Irene wiped out 200 state roads — including the one to the camp and a small bridge to its lodge and cabins.
They along with millions of others were left dealing with Irene’s aftermath. Across the border in Quebec, a driver was missing after a road collapsed and swallowed two cars about 100 kilometres northeast of Montreal. Police are investigating whether an 81-year-old Quebec man who died after being found unconscious in the storm was killed by Irene.
Hydro-Quebec was still restoring power to 21,600 clients Tuesday. Nearly 250,000 Hydro-Quebec customers had lost power on Sunday night.
And in the U.S. more than 2.5 million people from North Carolina to Maine were still without electricity Tuesday, three days after the hurricane churned up the Eastern Seaboard.
While all eyes were on the coast as Irene swirled northward, some of the worst destruction took place well inland, away from the storm's most punishing winds. In Vermont, Gov. Peter Shumlin called it the worst flooding in a century.
On Tuesday morning, 80 people were still stranded at the Kuolas/Didzbalis wedding at Camp Neringa. As of Tuesday night, all but 20 had made their way out.
“We knew this was a special wedding when a U.S. army helicopter landed at the camp to assess our situation,” said Didzbalis in an email to the Toronto Star, shortly after leaving the camp Tuesday.
Didzbalis, an environmental engineer, and Kuolas, a design graduate, described the prolonged celebration as “an impromptu summer camp with 100 of our closest friends and family.”
There was no damage to the camp itself, there’s a backup generator and, thanks to a bounty of wedding food, there’s been plenty to eat.
“We’ve had yoga classes, we’ve had art classes, massage classes — there’s all sorts of experts here giving classes,” said father of the bride Almis Kuolas. “People have been having a lot of fun.”
The couple chose the secluded American site for their nuptials for sentimental reasons: Auste Kuolas spent many summers there, and they had their first date nearby when she was an employee. Given the remote location, they invited their 150-some guests to spend the weekend and stay in camp cabins.
The Saturday wedding went according to plan, said Almis Kuolas. The ceremony was “beautiful,” guests ate and partied into the night and most stayed over at the camp.
But on Sunday morning, disaster struck, just as guests were readying to leave.
“The water came up so fast,” said Regina Kulbis, director of the camp. “They were trying to get people out of there, but it washed out the bridge.”
The landlocked state is not typically decimated by hurricane weather, and without cell reception, TV or Internet access, those at the wedding were caught by surprise.
“We had no idea it was going to be this severe.” said Almis Kuolas, still at the camp Tuesday morning and only reached after he hiked through forest until he got cell reception.
Tomas Ycas, a 23-year-old Toronto engineer, was in one of the last cars to get out before the camp’s bridge collapsed.
“My friend woke me up and said we had get out right now or we’re not leaving at all,” he said. “My entire car load left within five minutes.”
As he passed over the bridge, he saw that what had previously been a creek had become a “roaring river,” Ycas added.
Initially, all 105 people stranded after the bridge collapse remained on site; the only way out of the camp on foot is a 10-kilometre hike.
The U.S. National Guard flew in, via helicopter, to investigate any medical issues and provide emergency contact numbers. But leaving has been largely orchestrated by those at the camp and their friends and family.
On Monday, about 25 people were rescued by vehicles capable of plowing over the muddy terrain.
A fleet of SUVs driven by friends was scheduled to be coming up from nearby Boston to shuttle about 45 people Tuesday, and Almis Kuolas was hoping those remaining could leave Wednesday.
Katie Watson, another wedding guest, left the camp Saturday night to prepare her New York home for Irene’s expected onslaught. When she heard of her stranded fellow wedding guests, she wanted to help.
“We rented an eight-passenger Tahoe,” said Watson, on her way from New York to the camp Tuesday afternoon.
She had no idea how she was going to get there, since there’s little information about what area roads were open.
“Plan B is to go as close as possible then go in on foot and bring people back to the car.”
For the bride and groom, who move to Brussels later this week, the entire thing has been, simply put, “amazing,” said Didzbalis.
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