Port Williams barn roof ripped off in Sunday storm

A farmer in Port Williams had to scramble to keep thousands of chickens alive after the latest storm to hit Nova Scotia knocked out power and tore the roof off one of his barns.

Ron Testroete runs Saxon Valley Poultry, a farm with about 50,000 chickens.

The wind was so powerful on Sunday that the roof of Testroete's straw barn was torn from the structure and carried 18 metres, landing in the field across the road.

"It was a loud bang. It's kind of hard to describe. It was something unusual," he said Tuesday.

"I was kind of surprised. I wasn't really upset. It was like, 'Oh, just a casualty of the storm.'"

The roof missed the main power transmission lines along the road. However, the line connecting the farm was damaged, leaving Testroete to rely on backup generators to keep his 50,000 chickens — in another barn — warm.

Without power, there was also no ventilation in the barns.

"We're all about making the animals comfortable. I mean, they can survive when it's cold just like we can. They'd have to huddle together and find other means to keep warm," said Testroete.

"But we want to give them the optimum conditions. So we want to keep it at one steady temperature if we can."

Testroete has been plowing non-stop, both on the farm and nearby roads.

Electricity was restored on Tuesday and he's grateful it wasn't any worse.

"No animals or people were hurt in this issue here. So it's minor. To me it's kind of a minor thing as long as no one got hurt," he said.

"That's repairable. We can build that."