A suspected twister tore apart the powwow grounds at Swan Lake First Nation Wednesday evening as a severe weather system blew in from Saskatchewan and tore a strip off southern Manitoba.
Sean McKinney, a Swan Lake band councillor, said residents watched from the west end of the community as the storm appeared in the distance.
“We all sat there watching, recording,” McKinney said Thursday. “Then maybe (when it was) 100 to 200 metres away, we finally decided to leave the area because we got a little too close for comfort.”
Jordan Carruthers photo
Jordan Carruthers said he saw a tornado touch down near Swan Lake after following the storm from the Saskatchewan-Manitoba border as it tracked eastward.
No one was hurt, he said, but he’s concerned about more severe weather systems passing through this summer.
“The weather seems to be getting worse and worse. The tornadoes are getting closer and closer,” McKinney said. “They weren’t super powerful, but they were enough to cause a scare.”
Storm chaser Jordan Carruthers said he saw the tornado touch down near Swan Lake after following the storm from the Saskatchewan-Manitoba border as it tracked eastward. He saw other funnel clouds along the way.
Carruthers, who lives in Portage la Prairie, chases storms across Canada and the United States. He said this is the most twisters he’s seen produced from one storm in Manitoba, claiming to have seen four hit the ground.
The one near Swan Lake was the only one to condense and cause destruction, he said.
“It was kind of a blessing and a curse at the same time,” Carruthers said. “We were excited to see such a nice, beautiful, photogenic tornado but at the same time, we were saddened to find out that it did do some damage.”
He said he thinks this year will be a significant one for storms across the Prairies. Dry weather for the past few years has meant fewer storms, but there’s been an increase in soil moisture.
While Carruthers hopes to have storms to chase, a Saint Alphonse dairy farmer hopes he won’t experience another tornado quite so close to home again.
Henry Delichte’s farm is roughly 10 kilometres northwest of Swan Lake First Nation.
The 56-year-old said he didn’t believe the tornado warning issued by Environment Canada Wednesday afternoon. At the time of the alert, there was no rain and he was sitting under clear blue skies.
“It was actually a beautiful day,” Delichte said. “There was a thunderstorm north of us… and like anybody on the Prairies, you can see a storm a few miles in the distance, but we weren’t under it and didn’t think we were going to get affected by it.”
Delichte said he and his wife, Meredith Miller, went to get an ATV that had been left in their pasture. That’s when they saw a dust devil that morphed into a huge column.
“I was literally side by side with the tornado,” he said. “I could literally feel and see the air being sucked into the vortex right past my eyes.”
Jordan Carruthers photo
The powwow grounds at Swan Lake First Nation sustained damage from a suspected tornado on Wednesday evening.
Delichte was unharmed, but he lost his favourite hat to the wind. He said he can’t believe his 30 cows made it through the storm unscathed and is relieved it didn’t happen in a more populated area.
It took out some of his fencing, along with a machine shed and grain bins on his neighbour’s property, he said.
He added the experience was an eye opener.
Environment and Climate Change Canada said it’s looking into reports of touchdowns at Swan Lake and further west between Rivers and Rapid City. The total number of tornadoes can’t be confirmed yet, said Natalie Hasell, warning and preparedness meteorologist for Environment Canada.
The only confirmed reports of damage are to the powwow grounds in Swan Lake First Nation, she added.
Hasell said she expects the storm season to be “busy” now that there is more moisture in the province.
“I think we can expect that it will be easier for more significant storms to form,” she said, adding that won’t mean regular storms that are severe or dangerous, but she won’t be surprised to see frequent showers and thunderstorms.
McKinney said the First Nation has started cleaning the grounds, but has to make an insurance claim before damage can be repaired. A house had damage to its roof and siding and some grain bins were lifted off the ground, he said.
The annual powwow, from June 28 to 30, will proceed as planned, McKinney said, adding the community will move the bleachers and host the event without a cover if the grounds can’t be fixed in time.
jura.mcilraith@freepress.mb.ca