Cleanup underway in tornado-ravaged Manitoba

Several provincial officials assessing storm-torn areas of southern Manitoba said Monday that it's "a miracle" that no one was killed in the tornadoes that destroyed homes, cars and trees over the weekend.

Conservation Minister Stan Struthers visited a farm near Baldur, where the Desrocher family home was levelled by one of seven tornadoes that touched down on Friday and Saturday evenings.

"I've seen the impact of tornadoes in different parts of Manitobaover my years of living in rural Manitoba, but I've never seen anything like what I saw there at that farm site this morning," he said.

"The structural damage, the emotional trauma that the family is going through, that just hits a guy upside ofthe head like a ton of bricks."

Disaster assistance available

Provincial disaster assistance is in the works to help people devastated by the storms, said Chuck Sanderson, executive directorofManitoba's Emergency Measures Organization (EMO). The storms cut a wide swath from one side of the province to the other.

"On top of non-governmental organizations and friends and family, what you've got is every conceivable provincial resource available to that municipality," he said.

In addition to EMO, the province's fire commissioner, Manitoba Hydro, and representatives from the provincial departments of health, highways, conservation, health and social services were also in affected areas, said Sanderson.

"That's just ones off the top of my head. They're all embedded in that community and ready to rock 'n'roll."

In terms of financial compensation, Sanderson suggests people affected by the storm contact their insurance companies first.

"Talk to your insurance agent first, because [provincial] disaster financial assistance is an assistance program that is out there, but not for things that are insurable, and homes, cars, machinery, all that kind of thing is insurable."

An estimate of the cost of the cleanup should be available by Friday, Sanderson said.

He expected it will almost certainly top the $100,000 required to clean up the Gull Lake area after a tornado in August 2006 that killed one woman and injured several others.

Residents survey storm's destruction

One of the worst-hit areas in Manitobawas Elie, a town of 550 people between Winnipeg and Portage la Prairie. A tornado tore a swath 300 metres wide and almost six kilometres longthrough the town on Friday, ripping buildings from their foundations, tossing vehicles and leaving 15 people homeless.

On Monday, Manitoba Hydro crews were removing twisted and broken power poles lying at the side of the road while workers from the municipality and the province's Emergency Measures Organization searched a field across from the devastated area for debris.

Most of the people whose homes were damaged or destroyed are staying with family members, but a half-dozen returned to the area Monday to try to come to terms with the devastation.

"I'm looking for my cat," said Jocelyne Godin, walking around the remains of her home: the foundation where her house stood, a shed on its side, twisted power lines draped everywhere.

"We have seen her around, but she's afraid, so that's why I kind of want to come and call her, to see if she's here."

'I'm putting in a storm cellar for sure'

Godin, whowas at her sister's house on the other side of the railway line in Elie when Friday's twister hit, has found bits and pieces of her life strewn across the area, including articles of clothing blown hundreds of metres away from the place where her two-storey house once stood.

Manywhose homes were damaged or destroyedsaid there wasn't much they could do until insurance adjusters arrived and assessed the damages.

There is currently some confusion as to who is responsible for cleaning up in the Rural Municipality of Cartier, where Elie is located.

Workers from Manitoba Hydro and the municipality are doing what they can to fix problems on public property, but on private property, cleaning up may be left to individuals.

The Rural Municipality of Cartier will discuss the issue at a council meeting Monday night.

Godin plans to rebuild, and said she already has a new feature in mind.

"I'm doing a storm cellar, completely.I don't care, a basement's not good enough. I'm putting in a storm cellar for sure," she said.

Environment Canada officials rated the Elie twister as an F4 on the Fujita scale,meaning wind speeds likely reached between 330 and 420km/h. It was on the ground for at least 30 minutes.

'It really looked mean'

More severe weather came on Saturday night, when five tornadoes touched down in southwestern Manitoba: two in the Pipestone area, and near Minto, Hartney and Baldur, northeast of Killarney.

The twister in Baldur, which tore a house off its foundation and sent five people to hospital with minor injuries, has been rated an F3, meaning winds reached 253 to 330 km/h.

'You've heard all the time that it sounds like a freight train. Well, it really does.' Jack Cruise

Norman Desrochers was getting ready for bed Saturday evening when his daughter phoned to tell him the tornado was heading toward his farm near Killarney.

"Sure enough, there it was all right, a big, black funnel cloud," he said. "It really looked mean. And it didn't look very far away."

Desrochers, his wife, son, daughter-in-law and grandson retreated to the basement, and about 30 seconds later, they heard a crash.

"The house lifted right off the foundations over top of us and moved it over in the yard another 150 feet away," he said. "It landed on the roof and just demolished it from there."

A short distance away, in Pleasant Valley, Jack Cruise got a good look at the twister from his cabin.

"All of a sudden there was the huge roar. We knew it was a tornado, and in 45 seconds it blew through," he said.

As he watched out his front window, the storm tore the soffits, fascia and eavestroughs off the front of his house and swept his deck furniture into the sky.

"There's a huge wall of water, and wind and rumble, the huge rumble," he said. "You've heard all the time that it sounds like a freight train. Well, it really does."

Another tornado touched down Friday in the Elm Creek area.

No one was killed in the weekend twisters, although three men are recovering from injuries sustained when a tornado hit a trailer park near Killarney on Saturday.