Goderich Council met Wednesday afternoon and decided to extend the town's state of emergency for at least another week.

Mayor Deb Shewfelt tells CTV News that with the state of emergency in place, volunteers are covered by liability insurance through workers' compensation.

And there are a lot of volunteers still on the ground in Goderich trying to clean up the mess left behind by the F3 tornado that touched down more than a week ago.

There is also danger, from the use of heavy equipment, damaged trees and unstable buildings.

Councillors will get a status report on Friday that looks at the stability of the buildings in the community's downtown core.

Workers laid off at salt mine

At the heavily damaged Sifto Canada salt mine, the union reports 385 workers have been laid off after being paid for a week's work.

But the company says a lot of the new facilities weren't damaged in the storm, and they are hopeful people will be back at work soon.

Sifto's Rowland Howe says "This building holds 90,000 tonnes of salt, the damaged ones were less than 60,000. This mine will run again this year and get a lot of salt out of Goderich, tonnes this year."

For additional information Goderich residents looking for services in the community can visit: http://www.goderich.ca/en/headline.asp