Widespread damage in Manitoba after twin tornadoes, but no injuries reported

Long Plain recovering after tornado Emad Agahi reports volunteers are out in force to help Long Plain First Nation clean up after a tornado.

At least two tornadoes touched down in Manitoba as a powerful weather system carved a path of destruction that uprooted trees, flipped a small airplane and tore roofs off several homes across the province.

Environment Canada confirmed that one tornado touched down in Long Plain First Nation and the nearby Hutterite colony of New Rosedale. Another tornado briefly touched down in Hartney, Man., about 300 kilometres west of Winnipeg.

And while the strong weather system damaged several homes across Manitoba and cut electricity for thousands, Environment Canada said it hasn’t received any reports of injuries or deaths.

At least 50 families in the Long Plain First Nation, located southwest of Portage la Prairie, Man., were rushed from their homes after the tornado struck Wednesday. Intense winds knocked out power and caused extensive damage -- even lifting one house from its foundation.

“You could just hear the howling outside. It was very loud. The kids were really scared, they were crying,” Delphine Peters, a resident who fled underground during the storm, told CTV Winnipeg.

Another resident described how his home, vehicles and shed all sustained extensive damage amid the tornado.

“I thought I was going to go up along with the house. You could hear the cracking and (it was) just shaking,” said Clarence Assiniboine.

Locals created a makeshift emergency centre to record the names of families who lost their homes. Those people were sent to hotels in nearby Portage La Prairie. When those hotels filled up, others fled to Winnipeg.

A local councillor said she was shocked by the damage and overwhelmed by the sheer amount of work necessary to make the community liveable again.

“Roofs are leaking, there are a few people who came back who can’t open their doors because the house has shifted, we’ve got people with babies, the elderly,” said Long Plain councillor Barb Esau.

Environment Canada said at one point during the storm, 36 millimetres of rain per hour fell near Long Plain, while the airport in Portage la Prairie recorded wind gusts of 92 kilometres per hour.

“It picked up pretty fast and ripped off half our roof there, and it’s laying on the side of the house now. It’s kind of scary,” said Long Plain resident Bennett Umpherville, who drove to Winnipeg after the storm.

Hutterite colony struck

In New Rosedale, a nearby community of about 150 Hutterite people, a large shed was torn apart and reduced to a few wooden beams.

“It looked like a hurricane outside. The trees were bending, the rain was flying everywhere,” said Racelle Baer.

“We looked south and saw the huge metal sheets from the pole shed flying up in the air, so we knew it was really serious, so we ran downstairs.”

Storm-chasers in Hartney, Man., shot eyewitness videos of a fast-moving "rope" tornado that showed two thin clouds cross over each other and spin toward the ground. Environment Canada said the tornado touched down only briefly.

The weather agency said it received several other reports of funnel clouds across the southern part of the province, but not all had been confirmed. It said it was sending investigators to the areas to survey the damage and assess the reports.

More than 48,000 Manitoba Hydro customers across the province were without power at the storm’s peak, and extensive recovery efforts were underway Thursday to get the power grid back up.

“It’s a significant swath that was affected, and the damage that was caused to our electrical infrastructure is also significant. So (it was) kind of a double whammy in that regard,” said Manitoba Hydro spokesperson Scott Powell.

Roof ripped off Winnipeg condo

In Winnipeg, residents reported seeing the sky turn black as storm clouds moved in, then bright yellow, before the city was hit with high winds, heavy rain and intense lightning. More than 500 cases of toppled trees were reported to the city, and at least one home was struck by lightning.

Recordings taken at the Winnipeg airport showed the wind gusts reached 98 km/h.

More than 12,500 Manitoba Hydro customers in Winnipeg were without electricity on Thursday.

A Winnipeg condo building lost part of its roof to the high winds on Wednesday night, and the building was quickly evacuated for safety concerns.

“I didn’t think that the weather was that bad, but obviously from the look of the building it’s pretty bad,” said Clarice Rayter, who lives on the third floor of the building and wasn’t home when the storm hit.

Part of St. Andrews Airport, located just north of Winnipeg, was damaged by the wind, and a small plane was flipped and destroyed during the storm.

Environment Canada said the storms were sparked after high temperatures and extreme humidity produced humidex values above 40 degrees Celsius Wednesday. When a weak cold front swept through the southern part of the province, it triggered the thunderstorms that then led to the reported tornadoes.

With files from CTV Winnipeg