People in and around a southwestern Manitoba community are counting both losses and blessings after Environment and Climate Change Canada confirmed a tornado touched down on Sunday.
A tornado was observed near Elkhorn, Man., 300 kilometres west of Winnipeg, around 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Environment Canada said. The agency said it got reports of the tornado from the RCMP and from social media.
Environment Canada is collaborating with the Northern Tornadoes Project, based at Western University in Ontario, to investigate further and will provide more information once a preliminary assessment is done.
Storm damage was reported in the Manitoba community of Kola, just south of Elkhorn, Environment Canada meteorologist Shannon Moodie told CBC News on Monday.
The Northern Tornadoes Project said it’s possible the tornado near Elkhorn began near Kola, Moodie said.
“So we’re not sure if it’s two tornadoes [or] if it’s one. There could be more.”
An RCMP spokesperson said they aren’t aware of any injuries following the tornado.
‘Lost almost all our buildings’
A farmer near Kola said his family will decide Monday whether to rebuild, after the storms damaged most of their buildings, including a hay shed that “blew away.”
It was raining “like crazy” when Kelvin Siemens said he heard a roar outside the farm on Sunday.
“We lost almost all our buildings,” but their house was spared, Siemens said Monday.
He’s going to speak with his insurance company before a family meeting to discuss next steps, he said.
“I’m not a young man anymore, and how much do we, or will we, rebuild?”
Siemens said he’s certain they will rebuild to some extent.
“I’m not quite ready to give up.”
Elkhorn resident Karen Shackel said the storm uprooted a massive tree outside her home.
Karen Shackel says the storm knocked this tree over outside her Elkhorn home on Sunday. (Michele McDougall/CBC)
She and her family holed up in their basement Sunday night after realizing how serious the storm was, she said.
“The rain was coming down so hard and the wind was so strong,” said Shackel. “We stayed down there for about 15 minutes and then came up, and that’s when we saw the uprooted tree in the backyard.”
Most of the damage in Elkhorn seemed to be felled trees that fortunately landed away from nearby buildings, Shackel said.
“We were really, really lucky all around town” that the damage wasn’t worse, and the community “really came together” in the wake of the storm, she said.
“Everyone was driving around looking for people they needed to help.”
Storm damage is seen in Elkhorn, Man., on Sunday. (Submitted by Kurt Fuchs)
Kurt Fuchs, who lives in Fleming, Sask. — about 20 kilometres northwest of Elkhorn — said he was driving home from his job in Virden, Man., when heavy rains forced him off the highway and into Elkhorn around 6:30 p.m. Sunday.
He took images of the town after the storm ripped the roof off a store’s shed, which littered the streets alongside broken tree branches.
“It was really, really shocking,” Fuchs told CBC News on Monday.
Dwayne Hohmann, division manager of the Twin Valley Co-op on the west side of Elkhorn, which is near where Fuchs took photos, said part of the roof of the store’s lumber shed ripped off in the storm.
There’s damage to some stock and the lumber shed is closed to customers, but Hohmann says the main store is open.
“It was a positive that nobody was injured, so that’s what we’re taking out of it,” he said.
“We’ll band together as a community and move forward.”
‘Pretty big’ system settling down
It’s been a summer of wet weather in the area, with parts of southwestern Manitoba walloped by torrential rains earlier in the season.
Kola got about 74 millimetres of rain on Sunday, while St-Lazare got about 41 millimetres and Duck Mountain Provincial Park got 37.8, Environment Canada’s Moodie said.
Another confirmed tornado was seen near Maryfield, Sask. — about 30 kilometres southwest of Elkhorn — around 4 p.m. Sunday, the weather agency said. There was also a report of a possible tornado near Kelso, Sask., on Sunday, but there’s insufficient evidence to prove that so far.
Parts of Manitoba are expected to see some showers and non-severe, isolated thunderstorms on Monday, as the “pretty big” system over the Prairies that produced Sunday’s storms has begun to settle down, Moodie said.