TORNADO!

Saturday July 2, 2005

Residents of Pilot Mound, still recovering from the loss of their century-old hotel, and pumping water from their basements because of excessive rain, now anguish for several farmers just north of town who suffered a devastating tornado Saturday evening.

The 1/4 mile wide twister suspected to be 1/2 mile wide when it hit 34 Hwy, damaged or completely destroyed everything in its 5 mile path.

The twister began its destructive journey west of Bruce & Joyce McKay's home (The Grassick Farm), leaving their house trailer intact as it proceeded through their yard south east. Other buildings in the yard were not so fortunate. Those which were not completely destroyed were not worth saving.

Cal & Tracy McKay suffered tree damage in their farm yard as well.

Further east, Robin & Kelli-Ann McKay were fortunate to not be home as their house-trailer, grain bins, barn and smaller sheds on the yard were completely destroyed. All that remains standing is the old house they used for storage. Friends & family searched nearby fields Sunday morning for personal effects with little success.

The twister continued south east, damaging the nearly completed new garbage disposal and recycling depot next to 34 Hwy.

From there it proceeded east to Klassen's also destroying another property of Bruce Mckay's almost straight east from Klassen's. This is the former Jim & Esther Burns property. It then continued further south east to Billy Boyd's before it finally dissipated.

A link to the University of Manitoba Website can be found with the others on the right side of this page. Dave Carlson was one of those individuals who took photos that evening and of course, I was curious as to why he had been in the area. He stated:

    "I went out to the area that day because I was expecting storms that would produce large hail, and the storms can have beautiful structure. But when I got close to the storm, a strong sudden east wind told me that this thing was going to get nastier and that a tornado was possible. As I got out of the trees (the ones which were snapped all along the highway) I saw the cloud rotating rapidly above the ground. I called it into Environment Canada and they immediately issued a tornado warning. The pictures then ensued, as once the warning was out, there was nothing left for me to do except keep EC updated as to how the storm was acting."

When asked if he knew what classification the storm had been given:

    "As a matter of fact, I would know. I was part of the official storm damage survey team which investigated the damage the next day. We rated it as a strong F2. That relates to wind speeds of 180 to 250 km/h. The damage path we measured was 1.3 km wide (along the highway, anyhow). It was certainly a big tornado."

The day following the tornado, the damage survey team speculated that this storm was possibly the second largest in Canada, second only to the Edmonton Tornado in 1987.

Stories about the survivors' experiences can be found on their respective pages.