The strong wind and high waves that pounded the area for the last couple of days has left the Goderich waterfront badly damaged.

Mayor John Grace said there’s extensive damage from the Beach Street Station down past the water intake facility.

“In parts of the Cove there was so much rock and debris, it went over the top of the picnic tables. So there’s extensive damage,” he said. “A lot of the boardwalk is ripped up in that area.”

Grace added it wasn’t just the boardwalk that was damaged. A lot of the shoreline was damaged.

Goderich boardwalk damage, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019 (photo by Bob Montgomery)

“We put 120 huge cement blocks in yesterday to try and stabilize it and make sure we didn’t have any more extensive damage in front of the Beach Street Station,” said Grace. “We still did have a lot of damage overnight, but not as much as we would have if we hadn’t started to do the stabilization work.”

Engineers will be doing further inspections along the Goderich boardwalk and shoreline on Friday.

Grace adds the lake level is just one inch below record highs, so they’ll re-build the shoreline to withstand higher water levels.

Goderich shoreline erosion Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019 (photo by Bob Montgomery)