A well-known Southern Alberta farm lost two animals and is facing more than $60,000 in damages after a severe thunderstorm ripped through the property near Brooks Wednesday evening.
“Around 4:30p.m. I was working in my shop… there was a weather alert that came on the phone and when I came out the back of the shop, the storm was literally 100 yards off the gravel road. A white hail wall,” recalled Denis Jackson, owner of the White Barn Fun Farm.
He says he immediately thought his farm was about to be destroyed.
“It was just coming, there was no stopping it.”
“I had basically five minutes to grab whatever I could that was going to blow away. The bigger animals we have were in this corral beside the barn. The wind and rain were coming and the hail – golf ball and loonie, toonie-size hail had hit.”
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In that corral he had a horse, a pony, three donkeys and a camel.
“I yelled at them to stay there and hoped for the best. I ran to the house getting beat down by the hail.”
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As he ran he said he heard breaking glass.
“It took out all the windows in the top west side of the house,” Jackson said.
Windows shattered at the White Barn Fun Farm near Brooks, AB.
Drew Stremick / Global News
The storm also ruined farm equipment, broke fencing and snapped 100-year-old trees, ripping their roots from the ground.
“It levelled everything here.”
In the chaos, he said some animals tried to run in search of better shelter, including his five-year-old, 2000 lb. camel Stolli as well as a nine-year-old pony named Butterscotch.
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Jackson said Stolli was a visitor favourite at the farm, who often gave children rides. The camel was recently at Stampede.
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Stolli was a Bactrian camel.
Credit: White Barn Fun Farm
He got hit by falling trees, badly breaking his leg. After speaking to numerous vets, Jackson made the difficult decision to euthanize him.
“It’s tough, he’s part of the family. Not everybody owns a camel,” he said.
“It’s very heartbreaking.”
Jackson thinks it will take a few weeks to clean up all the mess.
Though they’re usually open until the end of September, or early October, “as far as White Barn Fun Farm goes, we’re pretty much done [for the season].”
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–with files from Drew Stremick, Global News.
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