An ordinary day in the farm shop turned ugly in a hurry for Ray Derdall and his son Carson July 5.
Suddenly the air turned cool. When they looked up, clouds were colliding about two kilometres from their farmyard north of Outlook, Sask.
“I thought, ‘That’s more than a dust bunny,’ ” Ray said, two days after a tornado destroyed the yard.
“It sounded like a jet aircraft taking off.”
The pair decided the Quonset was the safest place to escape the storm, but only Carson was able to make it there.
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Ray was pinned to the shop floor and unable to get to the door. He said the pressure was so tremendous he couldn’t move his hands to his head for protection.
“You could hear the tools getting flung around,” he said.
Then, the worst was over.
Carson came out of the Quonset, Ray came out of the shop and they jumped in the truck.
“We just wanted to get the hell out of there,” Ray said.
The shop was “toast.” The twister had pulled the Quonset footings right out and a 100-year-old barn was gone.
The house, where Carson lived, was also damaged, as was farm equipment, fences and trees.
They headed for Ray’s farmyard a couple of kilometres away. While they drove, the truck picked up the three-phase power line lying on the ground. Fortunately, the fuses had blown and the line was dead.
From there, the tornado continued east. Ray said he heard at least 10 centre pivots for irrigation had been twisted but that no other farmyards were damaged.
Environment Canada confirmed this tornado, as well as one, and possibly two, southwest and southeast of Kenaston.
Numerous funnel clouds, however, were spotted and another tornado was confirmed near Hartney, Man., the same day.
