Grand Lake area of N.B. cleans up after fierce storm, possible tornado

Damage is seen after a possible tornado in eastern New Brunswick, Sunday, July 21, 2013.

Parts of southern New Brunswick are cleaning up after a quick but destructive storm downed trees and levelled buildings Saturday night.

Several communities in and near the Grand Lake area were hit with strong winds, and possibly a tornado, according to video and eyewitness accounts.

One hard-hit area was Cambridge Narrows, located approximately 40 kilometres southeast of Fredericton.

Property owner Harold Jones lost three buildings in the storm. Several of his tractors were damaged.

“It only lasted about three minutes to five minutes and it was over,” said Jones told CTV Atlantic. “I looked out on the veranda and everything was in the air, just like a big funnel -- pieces of garage, everything just flying.”

Nearby resident Mary-Beth Mitchell said she couldn’t believe what she was witnessing.

“We saw the lightning and we heard a lot of wind and a lot of rain, but when we came out this morning we drove down the road, there were all the trees uprooted.

“You don’t see stuff like that in New Brunswick.”

In nearby Whites Cove, strong winds destroyed a barn and a 100-year-old tree.

Alex Hache was finishing a day of waterskiing on a the lake with friends when he saw a something stirring in the distance.

“We just kept watching it and it just started getting bigger and bigger,” said Hache, who captured video footage of what appears to be a funnel cloud.

Says his friend Matthew Rideout: “We saw it lift up a barn and disintegrate it. That’s huge, that’s strong.”

NB Power spent Sunday reconnecting power lines that were knocked out in the storm.

There were no reports of injuries.

Environment Canada is sending a team Monday to investigate the damage and assess whether the storm system was indeed a tornado.

With reports from CTV Atlantic’s Ashley Dunbar and David Bell