Sunday storm leaves trail of damaged buildings, shattered windshields across Saskatchewan
Carrot River experiencing a power outage as SaskPower workers attempt repairs
Communities in southern and central Saskatchewan were slammed by a storm late Sunday, peppering them with hail and tearing roofs from some buildings.
"I've been in that house for 25 years and never seen something like that hit," said Randy Schmidt, a resident in Carrot River, located about 244 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon.
"I thought the west windows of the house were going to pop out, that's how hard it was hitting."
Schmidt said there are snapped power poles and downed power lines in the town and sections of roof that were torn from homes. Schmidt said a large portion of the roof from the local diner, Carrie's Kitchen, was ripped off and flung more than 20 metres away.
At his farm just outside of town, Schmidt said, there was barely any evidence a storm had swept through the area beyond some hail pellets and a half-inch of rain, while some others outside Carrot River got hammered.
"Town hall got hit really hard, campers are flipped," Schmidt said.
Schmidt counted himself lucky because the only tree that split near his home missed his daughter's car.
However, it has left the town and surrounding rural communities without electricity, according to SaskPower. Crews are expected to work throughout the day, but there is no time frame for full restoration.
According to Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) meteorologist Terri Lang, Estevan, located about 16 kilometres north of the Canada-U.S. border, had wind gusts reaching more than 100 km/h.
"There's golf ball-sized hail stones coming out of that same storm, so you're going to get a lot of damage when you have hail stones driven at that wind speed," Lang said.
The system covered a large area of the province, with scattered storms throughout, blasting communities such as Carrot River and Estevan while skimming through others, including Saskatoon. The northern grain belt was hit hardest, Lang said, in places including North Battleford and Prince Albert, as well as communities in the southeast.
About 460 kilometres south of Carrot River, the City of Estevan's emergency measures organization (EMO) is working to clean up the streets and return the city to normal.
According to Helen Fornwald, safety and EMO co-ordinator, hail sized somewhere between a golf ball and a softball smashed through windows and storm winds tore off sections of a roof from a local business.
"Something that we never saw before is when that roof came down, for whatever reason how it came down, some of the roof was underneath a vehicle it had lifted off the ground; I've never seen that before," she said.
Fornwald said responders are still assessing damage.
In her nearly three decades as part of the emergency team, she ranks the hail damage from the storm among the worst in her tenure because it spread city-wide, knocking down trees, power lines and leading to minor damage of two aircraft at the airport.
"When you see people's vehicles, their windshield — their back windshield, their front — they're gone, they're smashed," Fornwald said.
Cars weren't the only thing damaged during the storm: An Estevan apartment took a big hit during the extreme weather.
"I was just laying there and in the snap of a finger it sounded like a freight train was coming through the ceiling," said Mel Myers, who lives in the building.
"You just heard a big crash, a couple of bangs and next thing you know, my roof's laying out on the streets."
Pieces of the roof covered the neighbourhood, said Myers, who landed in hospital after slipping in the water that began accumulating in his apartment.
Myers said his landlord and insurance company are working on fixing the roof, but that it was a big scare for everyone in the building.
The town of Gravelbourg, southwest of Regina, was also peppered by golf ball-sized hail.
André Moquin, who has lived in Gravelbourg since 1954, says the storm brought the largest hail he's ever seen.
"My garden that I was very proud of and that was in good condition because of the rainy weather, was flattened," he said, adding his car was also damaged.
Heritage Place Hotel and Dining Hall in Gravelbourg suffered major roof damage during the storm.
The restaurant's manager, Ann Tao, told CBC that there were no customers in the dining hall during the storm, but employees had to take shelter in the basement.
While lots of repairs are required, Tao said they hope to reopen Friday.
Lang said ECCC hasn't confirmed any tornadoes touched down in Saskatchewan, though it is investigating potential tornadoes. However, the straight line winds that tore across the province can cause more damage in a much larger area than a tornado can.
The Northern Tornadoes Project told CBC that they're sending two teams to investigate the reports of tornadoes and wind damage they've received.
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With files from Pier-Olivier Nadeau