Island family captures epic video while chasing storm

While many took shelterduring Thursday's powerful storm, one Island family decided to brave the elements and were rewarded with spectacular footage of a P.E.I.beachand wharfbeing beaten by powerful waves.

"I just love storms," said Jeff MacNeill, who along with his wife and three children, spent the day driving out to witness the storm in action.

"Anytime there's a storm, I'm right to the shoreline to get a look at it."

MacNeillis a fisherman and lives in North Lake. He said bad storms can take a serious toll on the lobster industry and that watching weather events like Thursday's usually has him and others in the industry checking on their equipment for damage.

But when he and his family when to check out Basin Head beach and the North Lake wharf,he said it wasunlike anythinghe's ever seen.

"Just crazy. Literally, some of the waves would have been 25, 30 feet high," he said.

"You couldn't even think of going onto the beach. You'd be swept away."

MacNeill said his family were the only spectators on the beach when they arrived in the morning andthey all took pictures and video of the waves.

Unimaginable 'destruction'

The MacNeills weren't even able to get onto the wharf at Basin Head because it was covered in water. Instead, they stood on a sand dune which seemed to be the only safe place to be.

"I'm 45 years old and I've never seen the surf conditions as it was," he said.

"I don't think a lot of people really realized the spectacle that was going on. It was basically a 100-year-storm I would think."

But for all the spectacle of the storm, MacNeill said he's worried about what condition the beach will be in once the waves subside.

"It was just devastation beyond belief. You couldn't imagine the destruction down there," he said, adding that several trees on the beach seemed to be damaged.

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