Storm trapped girl, 8, in park’s treetop course
Whole family traumatized by the experience
A Caledonia, Ont., family is still reeling from a recent visit to the Chutes Coulonge Park, when its youngest member was caught in an aerial obstacle course as a severe storm hit the Ottawa Valley.
Eight-year-old Taryn Armstrong was making her way across the children’s aerial obstacle course when the weather suddenly changed. High in the trees and attached to a harness, she panicked to get down as the powerful winds and rains threatened to topple the white pines supporting her.
Her family — two parents and three teenage siblings — could only watch.
“I was helpless,” says Taryn’s father, Eamon Armstrong. “Worst day of my life. I hope I never ever have to live through anything like that ever again.”
Eamon had taken time off work to take his family on vacation. They had been renting a cottage; the park was intended as the “highlight of the trip” before the family headed home.
Chutes Coulonge Park, which boasts several recreational features, was caught in the middle of Friday’s ‘microburst’. Ultimately, many of its features, dependent on trees, were destroyed by the high winds.
The staff, according to director Jean-François Dubois, had been keeping an eye on the weather radar. When the park lost power, the operations manager instructed staff to get all the visitors to safety, says Dubois, who was not on the site at the time.
What happens next differs, depending on whom you ask. While Dubois stands by the safety procedures executed by his staff, Eamon Armstrong says, “the family had to fend for (itself ).”
The operations manager directed Taryn to finish the obstacle course as quickly as she could, says Dubois. He says that getting to the end was faster than having two staffers climb up the obstacle course to unhook and lower the girl to the ground.
But when Taryn reached the end — a slide — she was too panicked to complete the final step of unhooking her harness. At the same time, Eamon says branches had begun to fall near his daughter.
“My staff were not standing there looking at them and saying, ‘You’re on your own,’” says Dubois.
A park staffer and 17-yearold Jennifer Armstrong rushed to Taryn’s aid. Her mother, Fran, says it was Jennifer who freed her youngest daughter.
Dubois says staff then ushered the family to the safety of one of the park’s buildings. Again, the family says otherwise. Fran says Jennifer was left behind, eventually joining the family safely.
Nobody at the park was injured during the storm.
Dubois says his staff offered to call an ambulance to treat the family’s shock, but they declined. The park also offered the family T-shirts, because they had been soaked in the rain.
The Armstrongs, back in Caledonia, are focused on recovery.
Taryn won’t discuss the event. She has slept in her parents’ bed every night since getting home and refuses to be left alone. She repeatedly asks about the weather.
Fran says her other children are “traumatized,” too. Neither parent could keep from crying when speaking with the Citizen.
Chutes Coulonge Park is trying to recover as well.
“We have to understand that not only the family was impacted by the storm but my staff,” says Dubois.
He told the Citizen Wednesday that a few staff have had difficulty coping with the storm and have sought counselling.
“We take this situation very seriously and it’s all going to be taken into consideration when it comes to the rebuilding of our park,” he says, adding that better evacuation measures may be put in place.
Chutes Coulonge Park has been closed since Friday. It is expected to reopen in two to three weeks.