'Worst I've ever seen,' Trout River residents say about storm that ripped through town on Monday

A storm whichbattered the western Newfoundlandcommunity of Trout River on Monday has locals in disbelief that their community is still standing.

"This is the worst ever I've seen, this one. Worst ever I've seen. There was a lot of wind, a lot of wind and a lot of swell heading in,coming in here. It didn't look good," said SamuelSnook, who has been living in Trout River about 130 kilometres north of Corner Brook for 84 years.

"If it had have kept up it would have been worse."

Snook has witnessed a lot of storms in his time in Trout River. Yet, Monday's storm he calls the biggest.

On Monday afternoon the town officially declared a state of emergency, reaching out to the provincial government for help and to aid in the repair of damage to town resources such as its boardwalk.

Premier Dwight Ball was on the ground on Tuesday to get a first person perspective on whathappened.

Monday's storm will mark the third time in two years the province has had to help repair damage in the rural community of about 500 people.

Snook said he expected the town'srestaurant, and surrounding area, to be demolished completely.

Seaside Restaurant

On Monday,CBC News reached Jenny Parsons, co-owner of Seaside Restaurant in Trout River.

Clapboards and shingles had been ripped off of her business, which sits only a short walk from the shoreline.

She feared the retaining wall underneath the town'sdamaged boardwalk would give way to the ocean. In turn it would have created major destruction to the town's waterfront, Parsons said at the time.

"There was just nothing but angry waves. I'd say they were going 40, 50 feet in the air, breaking off the shed here next door," Parsons said on Wednesday.

"There's damage all over the place here."

Parsons said she feels lucky that her restaurant made it through the storm relatively unscathed. But the storm itself was something she had never experienced before.

According to Parsons, previous storms were generally focused on one area of the beach head, but Monday's storm covered the entire thing, whipping up debris in its path and smashingit intobuildings.

"It was such a helpless feeling when we arrived here Monday afternoon," she said.

Pushing for action

Gloria Barnes grew up in Trout River. Now she's the town's deputy mayor.

Barnes told CBC News she can't remember a time when water levels were so high, attributing the problem to climate change.

Parsons agreed.

Both women want to see a permanent solution to fixing the town's boardwalk and retaining wall, something which will see thousands of tourists each year as they visitthe picturesque community nestled into Gros Morne National Park.

"The talks got to become action. It's useless to just sit in meetings and talk about what can be done, or what might be done," Parsons said.

"It's time now for government, for the municipality to really push government from the provincial and federal levels to really get something on this beach here in Trout River."

Barnes said the state of emergency still hasn't beenlifted from the community as of Wednesday, hoping that in the next day or two the strongwinds cutting through the townwill let up.

But assistance will be necessary regardless of the damage, for a town made up of a council of volunteers.

"There's so many things we don't know and so many things we're learning every day. So when these things keep happening it's like we need help," Barnes said.

"We don't have the ability to know what we need. That's what I said to the premier yesterday. We don't know what we want, we don't know what we need, because we don't know what the solution is down there. But, we can't have this keep happening."

Barnes saidMP for the riding of Long Range Mountains Gudie Hutchingswill be in town Friday for a sit down to discuss what the federal government can offer in the way of assistance.

What that assistance may look like, Barnes is unsure as of Wednesday.

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