‘A bunch of bad luck’

Ray Watson stands amid the soaked interior of Our Daily Bread Ministry’s building on Harrold Street. The Daily Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

Bringing gusts of nearly 50 mph and more than an inch of rain, the storm tore off a new roof that was being installed on the building that houses Our Daily Bread Ministries  and caused a slide that briefly closed Highway 199.

“We are expecting two more storm systems in the next week,” said Doug Boushey of the National Weather Service. “Thursday and Friday we will be seeing possibly stronger winds and another inch of rain, and Saturday we have a colder front moving in.”

Winds often precede rain in storm fronts, Boushey said, and the wind really picked up at about 8 p.m. Monday.

The slide occurred at 8 a.m. Tuesday seven miles north of Gasquet on 199, and closed the road for less than an hour.

The storm’s worst local damage happened hours earlier.

At about 10 p.m. Monday, the uncompleted new roof at Our Daily Bread, 1135 Harrold St., was torn almost completely off, sending 20-foot-long metal roofing panels flying across the neighborhood.

The new roofing material was ripped off the building by the high wind. The Daily Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

“As we got out to check on it, one of the panels fell on the hood of my car. We got it off and went straight to Shop Smart to get out of the way.”

Many of the panels of the new roof had not yet been fastened down, just slid into place, said Ray Watson of Our Daily Bread.

On Tuesday morning, the building — a large pole barn type of warehouse with metal siding — looked like a tornado had touched down.

“How do you come back from something like this?” Wylie said, his glasses misting from indoor rain.

Tables, donated clothing, a full kitchen and an office full of equipment were soaked — possible beyond repair.

Donated meat for the holiday season may be ruined, because the electricity was cut off due to the water damage and that shut off the freezers, Wylie said.

The ministry did get a generator in as soon as possible Tuesday, but ultimately the Health Department has to decide if the meat is still usable, said Our Daily Bread Director Mike Justice.

Regardless of whether the  turkeys will be deemed safe, the storm’s damage has interrupted the daily meal service the ministry provided Monday through Friday.

Justice said that the organization is going to re-start the program in the next couple weeks, but it will be downgraded to providing meals for three out of the five days. The only question  is where this might happen.

“The weather changed on us so fast,” Justice said. “It really is just a bunch of bad luck. But we are still committed to our mission, we are just as motivated as the day we first began.”

Justice said the contractor who donated his time to put the roof in the first place is helping to get things sealed up. And the building’s owner, Roy Tedson, is donating a crew to help get things done in a timely fashion, Justice added.

“No matter what, we will have it sealed up in the next couple weeks,” Justice said. “We’re going to batten down the hatches and wait for a dry spell.”

The lack of a roof and the ensuing water damage have definitely put a damper on the ministry’s plans to provide an emergency homeless shelter for the upcoming winter months.

The shelter, unlike last year’s at the Del Norte County Fairgrounds, would have been for nighttime use only, and potential users would have to spend their days elsewhere.

“We are still committed to finding a place to put the shelter,” Justice said. “There will definitely be housing this year, just where and what type is the question now.”

Originally the ministry was planning on having the proper permits in place for providing emergency shelter at its Harrold Street location by Dec 1.