Tornado touches down in southwest Manitoba, lasts nearly 3 hours

People in southwestern Manitoba took cover Monday night as violent storms roared through the region, producing a"phenomenal"tornado that lashed trees, farmland, and roads.

• Tornado safety tips
• FAQ: Tornadoes, what they are and how they form
• Tornado possible in southeast Saskatchewan

Environment Canada meteorologist Mike Macdonald said it was a"rare" eventbecause it wasthe same tornado that stayed on the ground for 2to three hours. In Canada, tornadoes rarely stay on the ground longer than a few minutes, Macdonaldsaid.

This is the first time it looked like there could be a very substantial hit to our community.- Jeff McConnell

"To be on the ground for 2to three hours is phenomenaland to miss everything is basically a miracle," he said.

Virden Mayor Jeff McConnell said he and his family took cover in the basement after seeing updates on the tornado on social media.

"I actually have never done that before.I told my family to go into the basement because I was a little worried about the fact that the storm was coming that quickly," McConnell told CBC News Network shortly after midnight Tuesday.

"I saw that it was tracking towards us so I said to everybody, 'OK, into the basement now.'"

McConnell said there have been storms with tornadoes in the Pipestone area before, but he was concerned becausethis one was tracking directly towards his community.

"We do pay attention all the time, but this is the first time it looked like there could be a very substantial hit to our community, so that's why I was so active on the social media, making sure people heard it," he said.

The power was out and the storm continued to produce lightning, strong winds and rain in the community as of midnight, McConnell said, adding thatlift stations for the town's sewer systems wereshut down due to the power outage.

At the same time, he added, "the worst part's past us."

Damages tohydro poles, road, farm

Thewindsnappedsome hydro poles, dropping power lines to the ground.

Manitoba Hydro spokesmanAnthonieKoopsaidcrews were responding to calls through the night about outages.As of Tuesday morning,450hydrocustomers in Brandonwere without power,along with 700 inGlenboroand about 50 inReston.

Koopexpectedthe people inGlenboroto have their electricityrestored shortly.

There were also reports that a bridgewas damaged.The Manitoba government says Highway 256 west ofMelita, from Highway 445 to Highway 345, remains closed as a result of bridge damage.

As well, the tornado may have damageda farm site nearTilston, according toEnvironment Canada.

The agencyreported a possible tornado nearGainsborough, about 300 kilometres southeast of Regina, though that remains to be confirmed.

Environment Canada'sdamage survey team will be in southwest Manitoba to see the impact and rank the tornado.

Warnings issued earlier in the evening

Environment Canada first issued tornado warnings shortly after 8 p.m.Mondayin the rural municipalities of Pipestone, Wallace, Albert and Edward, all in the province's southwestern corner.

The warnings were later expanded to include themunicipalities ofShoal Lake,Birtle, Blanshard, Hamiota, Harrison, Miniota, Saskatchewan, Strathclair, Daly, Wallace and Woodworth, among others.

By12:15 a.m. Tuesday, Environment Canada said there had not been any more tornadoes reported since the one nearVirden, but officials added that tornadoes would be nearly impossible to see in the dark.

All tornado warnings and watcheswere liftedaround 12:30 a.m. Severe thunderstorm warnings remained in effect in the areas where the tornado warnings had been issued.

• ON MOBILE? View our tornado Storify here.