A tornado touched down near a community in southwestern Manitoba on Sunday, Environment and Climate Change Canada has confirmed.
A tornado was observed near Elkhorn, Man., 300 kilometres west of Winnipeg, around 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Environment Canada said. Reports of the tornado were made via the RCMP and social media.
The weather agency is collaborating with the Northern Tornadoes Project 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.”
A farmer near Kola said his family will be deciding 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.”
It’s been a summer of wet weather in the area, with parts of southwestern Manitoba were previously walloped by torrential rains earlier this summer.
Kola received about 74 millimetres of rain on Sunday, while St-Lazare got about 41 mm and Duck Mountain Provincial Park got 37.8 mm, Moodie said.
Another confirmed tornado was seen near Maryfield, Sask., around 4 p.m. Sunday, the weather agency said. A possible tornado was also reported near Kelso, Sask., on Sunday, but there’s insufficient evidence to prove that so far.
Parts of Manitoba will 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, she said.
Tornado confirmed, warnings issued as south and central Sask. walloped by extreme weather
Kurt Fuchs, who lives in Fleming, Sask., 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.”
