Roy Benko was out picking up large, flat chunks of ice from the farmyard to show his wife when he looked above him and noticed flying debris.
“I backed into the shed. I kept backing up. I needed someplace to hide. I ran for the tractor cab. I made it inside. Then the roof came down,” said the Cupar, Sask., farmer.
Benko’s farmyard, along with a neighbour’s, was tossed.
His home was destroyed and his parents’ house badly damaged. But his family escaped injury and only a single calf is missing from the corrals.
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“But there is hay and straw and pieces of farm equipment everywhere,” Benko said of the July 31 storm.
The Benkos’ home wasn’t insured and only some vehicles and farm machinery fall under the farm’s policy.
A donation account has been established through Saskatchewan credit unions in the Benko name to assist the young family in rebuilding.
While there were many reports of extreme weather over the Prairies in July, only seven tornadoes were reported as touching down.
Bob Cormier of Environment Canada said the number of tornadoes is likely lower this July than in most years. However, large hail incidents are up, said the Saskatoon meteorologist.
Manitoba had several tornadoes in June but none in July. Alberta experienced three in July, while Saskatchewan saw four of the extreme windstorms.
Cormier said the hail that Benko experienced before the tornado hit his farm was the bigger weather issue across the Prairies.
Hail preceded a windstorm’s removal of a hog barn roof at the Etonia, Sask., Hutterite colony, said Lawrence Mandel.
“We didn’t see the tornado. We had a big hailstorm. Then the roof got ripped off the pig barn and crumpled up and tossed down the road,” he said.
“We got a lot of help from others and we put our barn back into operation. We never did see the wind coming, though,” Mandel said.
In Alberta, hail larger than a nickel was reported 61 times in July. Large hail was observed 40 times in Saskatchewan and 22 times in Manitoba.
Only 51 of the 174 hail events produced ice pellets smaller than a nickel, said Cormier.
Hail larger than a nickel often results in property damage and the number of crop insurance claims is up, say insurers.
Saskatchewan Government Insurance confirms there has been an above average number of storm damage claims for the month.
A tornado was also reported near Speers, Sask., on July 30 but other than stripping gravel from a road, little damage was reported in that storm.
