Eyewitness to a disaster

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/07/2020 (2206 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg Free Press photographer Dave Bonner was vacationing at a La Rivière cabin when a devastating tornado struck the evening of July 20, 1968.

He and his brother-in-law had just finished swimming in the river and had put pork chops on the barbecue when they noticed a storm approaching. They were unconcerned initially, thinking it didn’t look like a serious threat.

“We thought that it would dissipate or at least go around the valley. We stood and watched it until I thought I had better get some pictures,” Bonner recounted to Free Press reporter Gordon Arnold at the time.

Within minutes the twister struck.

“The cabins we were staying in are converted railroad cars so there was no basements to take shelter in.

“And old used car shack, not too far from our cabin, had its roof peeled off like a piece of paper. Then it just seemed to explode in all directions and we hit the floor.

“The building shook pretty badly, but it didn’t move. One of our neighbour’s cabins moved a good 10 feet, which gives a pretty good idea of the force of the tornado, since these cabins weigh from 20 to 30 tons each.

“The whole thing can’t have lasted more than 10 minutes. Then it was a perfect day again except for all the debris lying around.”

The tornado cut a swath 200 yards wide and 20 miles long through the Pembina Valley, destroying farmland, damaging homes, flipping cars and uprooting thousands of trees. Damage was initially pegged at $1 million, but there was no loss of life.

Two days later, Bonner was back at work in Winnipeg photographing another major news story — the inferno that destroyed the St. Boniface Basilica.