‘No time to react’: Fierce storm with ‘swirling debris’ rips through Interlake farm

Fundraiser held for Nelson house victims A Winnipeg woman is fundraising for three boys killed by a car near Nelson House.

An Interlake family is in clean up mode after rushing to safety during a powerful storm it believes was a tornado.

Darcy Timchishen said he saw a twister Saturday on his farm in Arborg about an hour north of Winnipeg.

“It was small and just came through without a moment’s notice,” he told CTV News Sunday.

Timchishen said the storm took down several spruce and maple trees, dented a couple of bins and tipped over an auger and conveyer.

He said family members were watching the storm before it picked up in intensity.

“Two trees snapped and started getting away and we said, ‘get the kids in the basement’,” he said.

“It was right outside the house. The way the debris was, you could see it swirling.”

Timchishen said the five kids are 15 years old and young and some were crying.

Weather Warning to Others

Timchishen said he has had seen tornadoes before but not this close and has things been different it could have been a lot worse.

“You have to be alert, there’s no time to react,” he said.

“Had this been a bigger storm there was no time to go anywhere..It’s pure whiteout.”

Investigation underway 

Environment and Climate Change Canada said it is investigating if a tornado touched down near Arborg, but suspects the damage was caused by straight line winds.

“It was not necessary isolated in nature. There was widespread damage from what we can tell,” said meteorologist Heather Pimiskern.

She said it could take serval days for the weather agency to make a final determination.

Pimiskern said the storm brought hail to several parts of Manitoba, including nickel sized hail in Eddystone and Glenora.

“Between 5:30 p.m. and 6:10 p.m. we received two reports of hail from quarter size to ping pong in La Rivière,” she said.

Golf ball sized hail was also reported in Bagot.

Wind gusts in excess of 90 km per hour are believed to have been associated with the Saturday storms.

ECCC is still gathering information on rainfall amounts, but said one volunteer weather observer reported 38.1 millimeters of rain near Gimli.