Oxbow-area resident describes devastation after Thursday storm ravaged farm

Thursday's storm in southeastern Saskatchewan saw huge hail stones, powerful wind gusts and torrential downpour but no tornado, according to Environment Canada. 

Instead, the weather waited until it had passed over into Manitoba and a tornado touched down near Waskada, just east of the Saskatchewan border.

It was nonetheless a scary situation for Brianna Beatty, who began preparing for a potential tornado an hour before the storm ravaged her farm near Oxbow, about 220 kilometres southeast of Regina. Beatty was alone with her two children, ages two and four, when the storm finally arrived.

The west siding of her home is almost completely gone, one of the shops on the property is gone, bins were folded or thrown into a nearby field, and trees were twisted and mangled, Beatty told CBC Radio's Blue Sky on Friday. 

"It was really loud and I could hear the hail hitting the windows," she said. "Hail was actually coming down the basement stairs, blowing in from the kitchen window."

"It was scary — I don't like storms so it was hard trying to stay calm with [the children]," Beatty said.

When she went back upstairs after the storm, she said the scene was devastating. The kitchen was flooded, property damaged and the yard practically destroyed.

Although it hasn't been confirmed, Beatty believes there was a tornado.

Heavy rainfall made it difficult to visually confirm rumblings on social media of a tornado but Environment Canada meteorologist Terri Lang said there was a "rotating storm" caught on radar in the province. 

Beatty said the interior walls of her home are covered in glass, some of which is now embedded in furniture. Beatty and her family went to her mother's house, near the U.S. border.

They'll stay in a camper this weekend as the family gets ready to clean up the mess. 

"We have a lot of clean up but we have a lot of amazing neighbours and family members that are coming out to help us."

151 km/h winds

Wind gusts as high as 151 km/h were recorded by storm chasers before the hail broke the anemometer off of the chaser's vehicle, Lang said on Friday. 

She added the high winds weren't caught by any weather stations.

"Of course, these storms go around our weather stations."

The same super cell system that hammered Saskatchewan with hail on Thursday is the one that saw the tornado touch down in Manitoba, Lang said. 

Even if there wasn't a tornado in the province, the watches issued on Thursday morning were plenty enough cause for concern, she added.

"A storm like this, with the stones of hail and rain, these are the risks that can occur."