Tornado touches down in Elkhorn

ELKHORN — A tornado that swept through the Elkhorn area on Sunday night tore trees from the ground, downed power lines and caused widespread property damage across the region.

Elkhorn resident Michelle Martens was standing outside her home when she saw the storm coming toward her Sunday evening.

“It looked like a big white shelf coming this way,” Martens said Monday, standing in her yard surrounded by broken branches and deep holes where established trees had been uprooted and tipped over.

“It wasn’t even dark. It was white, low clouds that were just moving really fast,” she said.

A strong storm system that moved east from Saskatchewan into southwestern Manitoba brought two confirmed tornadoes, one in Elkhorn and another near Maryfield, Sask., and two potential ones that have not yet been confirmed, Environment Canada said Monday.

No injuries were reported.

Martens suspects the tornado went through her and her neighbours’ backyards, based on the ravaged path left the next morning.

“It was loud,” Martens said. “You could hear the branches hitting the house.”

She and her children were in the basement for most of the storm, she said.

“The emotions are just,” she sighed. “It’s overwhelming.”

In Kola, about 25 kilometres southwest of Elkhorn, Kelvin Siemens woke up Monday to find his barn and hay shed were toppled and a pile of rubble was left behind.

“This kind of devastation can really test your constitution,” Siemens, 65, said Monday from his farm just south of the small community in the rural municipality of Wallace-Woodworth.

Siemens spent Monday getting tools, electronics and other valuables out of the rainy weather, trying to reach an insurance agent, and cleaning up scattered wood and tin strewn about by the winds.

It’s bad, but not all bad: the family home was somehow left virtually untouched, and what he describes as the “various sundry of animals” on the farm are all safe and accounted for.

“We will move on, but in what way, shape or form remains to be determined,” he said. “I’m going to be 66 this fall, so that factor may play in … Everything’s up in the air.”

While the exact path the tornado took is still being determined, one farmer about 15 kilometres southwest of Elkhorn said she saw the tornado circle the area for 15 minutes.

Shannon Lund, who has lived around the town her whole life, said this was the first time she had experienced a tornado, but she was unfazed.

“It could have done a better job,” Lund laughed, pointing to an old barn beside her house she’s wanted to clear off her farm. The structure was half-collapsed after Sunday night’s storm.

The wind damage on Lund’s pig farm knocked down several trees, broke power lines and damaged a shed and the barn.

She said she saw the tornado come through her property around 4:30 p.m. Sunday evening.

“It just sounded really windy, but I didn’t really hear anything crazy, to be honest,” Lund said. “No bangs or crashes.”

Lund said she stayed in her tub cuddled up with her cats while she waited for the tornado to pass.

“I got lucky,” Lund said. “(There’s) not as much damage, I guess, as other places.”

Iris Vercaigne, chief administrative officer for the RM of Wallace-Woodsworth, said damage assessment was still ongoing as of Monday afternoon.

“What we’re seeing is significant tree damage, down power lines … and some property damage,” Vercaigne said.

“Our priority … is clearing fallen trees and debris from municipal roads and right of ways so that at least everyone can maintain safe and accessible roadways throughout the community,” she said.

Despite heavy rain on Monday, many Elkhorn residents were out clearing the debris from their yards and the streets in front of their homes.

“I’m very grateful to see all these neighbours,” Martens said, noting the help she had received from the community while cleaning up.

“I’ve never seen anything so nice, we don’t even know each other’s names,” she laughed.

Tall trees that once provided privacy between Martens’ property and her neighbours are now on the ground being chopped into smaller sections to be hauled away.

A power line beside her house is snapped and another line across the street has a broken branch hanging from it.

As of Monday afternoon, no data regarding the speed, duration or specific location of the tornado had been confirmed, Environment Canada meteorologist Terri Lang told the Sun.

“There are no weather stations (in the area), which is kind of the problem,” she said.

Without a nearby weather station, “wind estimates are based (on) the damage that was done.”

The weather agency issued a tornado warning in Wallace-Woodworth and some surrounding areas Sunday.

Lang confirmed surveyors were in the area assessing the damage.

A number of Manitoba communities experienced heavy rain on Sunday: as of 6 a.m. Monday, there was a recorded 73.8 millimetres of rainfall in Kola, 37.8 mm in Duck Mountain, 55.8 mm in San Clara and 41.2 mm in St. Lazare.

» rgerrard@brandonsun.com, with files from the Winnipeg Free Press