A tornado tore through a southwestern Manitoba community Sunday evening, downing trees, snapping power lines and tearing the roof off a local business.
Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) confirmed the tornado struck Elkhorn, a small community about 15 kilometres west of the Saskatchewan border, around 6:30 p.m. Sunday. The agency said it received a report about the tornado through the RCMP, along with a number of tips from the public on social media.
ECCC said two more tornadoes were confirmed in southeastern Saskatchewan near the Manitoba border as part of the same weather system. Several severe thunderstorms moved through the region, bringing heavy rain and large hail along with the twisters.
Pat Siemens, whose barn was heavily damaged in the storm, called it “an emotional evening.” She said her hay shed was also destroyed, but that she considers herself fortunate her house and her animals came through unharmed.
Area resident Michelle Martens said her family took shelter in the basement as the storm bore down on their home.
“We [saw] a shelf coming, and I got everybody to go downstairs,” Martens said. “It was here in seconds … and we all went down to the basement and hid. And it was really loud.”
Martens said the ordeal lasted roughly 10 to 15 minutes before her family emerged to survey the damage. Driving through the community afterward, Martens said the destruction was widespread.
“There’s lots of trees, lots of trees down, lots of power lines that are just snapped off and trees over houses,” she said. She added that part of the roof was torn off a building at the local Co-op.
As of Monday afternoon, Martens said her home was still without power, though crews had just cleared a fallen tree from a neighbouring property.
“They actually just finished getting that tree off the neighbour’s house, so now we can actually get it hooked up,” she said.
The storm system also dumped significant rainfall across several Manitoba communities. According to 48-hour rainfall totals recorded up to 8 a.m. Monday, ECCC said Kola received 80.5 millimetres, Minitonas received 71.7 millimetres and San Clara received 71.6 millimetres.
CTV News previously reported that the storm was caused by a cold front combining with an unseasonably warm atmosphere.
An ECCC team was expected to travel to the area Monday to assess the damage, and the agency said it would release more information once a preliminary assessment is complete.
The Northern Tornadoes Project, a research initiative based at Western University, will also investigate the storm in the coming days to help determine its strength and track.
With files from CTV’s Danton Unger
