Tornado-producing storm leaves trail of destruction in southern Manitoba

Several communities are beginning to clean up after a huge tornado-producing storm plowed through southern Manitoba Wednesday, ripping out trees, snapping hydro lines, flipping vehicles and damaging buildings.

Environment Canada confirmed ThursdayanEnhanced Fujita Scale 1 tornadoor EF1 touched down in southern Manitoba in Long Plain First Nation and the surrounding area.

EF 1 tornadoes produce windspeeds of between135 and175 kilometres per hour.

Pat McCarthy, manager of Environment Canada's storm prediction centre in Winnipeg,the tornado traveled at least eightkilometres.

"It was pretty intense," he said.

Roofs were blown off houses, trees uprooted and some homes were separated from their foundations in Long Plain, movingameter away, saidChiefDennisMeeches.

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Forty-seven homes were seriously damaged and close to200 people have been displaced or 12 per cent of the population in the community of 2,400, Meeches added.

Members of the nearby New RosedaleHutteriteColonycommunity were also left to pick up the pieces Thursday.

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Twisted metal and hunks ofsplintered wood were strewn across farm fields in the area;large grain silos were bent and dentedbeyond repair and tractors were buried in debris.

McCarthy saidpieces of one building were found more than threekilometres away from their original location.

Environment Canadaalso isinvestigating apossible tornadotouchdowninthe HartneyDeloraineLauder area, where twofunnel clouds were seen and one mighthave briefly touched down.There was no damage reported in the area.

The forceful storm formed when two separate weather systems collided and morphed into one high-precipitation supercellWednesdayevening.

During the day, an extremely hot and humid airmasshadsettled into southern Manitoba, sending temperatures above 30 C and producingextreme humidity levels that made it feel more like40. Acold front slammed into that system, suddenly dropping temperatures and sending winds into afuror.

According to Environment Canada, the temperature in Winnipeg plummeted in one hour from 28 C to 18 C.

The storm hit hard at theSt. Andrews Airport, about 50 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg, leaving a hanger and several aircraft mangled.

Several ultralight airships made in Manitoba weredestroyed,University of Manitoba professorBarry Prentice said.

The ships were designed to transport food and supplies to northern communities and were not insured, Prentice said.

The storms also produced aswath of large hail,intense rain anddamaging straight-line winds,which can be as strong as tornado windsbut do not rotate.

Windgusts from in PortageSouthportwere at least 122 km/h, Environment Canada said.

Part of a barn belonging toCornell Dairy Farms, northeast of Winnipeg betweenBeausejour and Anola, was torn off and crumpled.

"I'm just looking at crumpled sheet metal with two-by-fours and nails at our farm. It literally ripped the entire roof off our barn," said Lisa Dyck,who owns Cornell Creme, a Manitoba-madeice cream business.

The sheet metal roof from the barn was twisted and blown against other buildings, wrapping partially arounda home belonging to Dyck's in-laws, who also live on the property.

RAW: Cornell Dairy Farms takes on damage in Manitoba storm

8 years ago

Duration 0:16

The Cornell Dairy Farms took on serious damage during a storm in southern Manitoba.

Some live power lines were also torn down and left sparking on the driveway to the property, trapping Dyck's in-laws in the home untilhelp arrived around midnight.

Cows fine 'and that's a miracle'

Dyck and her family are spending Thursday goingthrough the debris and waiting on their insurance company toassess the damage.

As far as business production goes, Dyck said things should return to normal soon.

'"I don't know if we've lost freezers at our plant, but we should be OK. Deliveries might be a bit delayed today, but other than that, I think we'll be fine," she said.

"I'm thankful. It's shocking, but no one was hurt, our cows are fine and that's a miracle."

32,000 lose power

In Winnipeg, wind gusts of 98 km/h to 107 km/h ripped down power lines and tree limbs, and peeled back the roof ofan apartment complexon Sinclair Street in the West Kildonan neighbourhood.

According to Manitoba Hydro,16,000 to20,000 people in the citywere without power at the peak of the outages. As of Thursday at 6 p.m. CT, 6,000customers were still without powerin Winnipeg alone.

Manitoba Hydro received about 500 calls for downed trees in Winnipeg, the Crown corporation said.

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Across southern Manitoba as a whole, there were 32,000 people without power at the peak of outages.

InMelita, hail thesize of tennis balls was reported, while in Sinclair,there wasping pong ball-sized hail.

Golf ball-sized hail was reported in Brandon, where25 millimetres of rain fell in one hour.

Storm highlights

Peak humidex levels

• Winnipeg 42.
• Brandon43.
• Deerwood45.
• Portage la Prairie45.
• Morden44.
• Melita43.
• Sprague43.

Wind gusts

• Winnipeg98-107 km/h.
• PortageSouthport122 km/h.
• Selkirk 115 km/h.
• Mountainside 110 km/h.
• Starbuck 101 km/h.
• Gretna 96 km/h.
• Carberry 94 km/h.
• Deerwood 93 km/h.
• Brandon 83 km/h.