Tornado tears roofs off Whyte Ridge homes

Peter Petkau was on his porch Monday night watching the rain pound the streets in Whyte Ridge when things took an ugly turn and a tornado ripped through the area.

“The wind was blowing really strong, and then it started blowing even stronger, and I figured, ‘OK, this is going to do some damage,’ and then it really came hard,” Petkau said in front of his home Tuesday afternoon in the aftermath of the ferocious storm that barrelled through his yard and those of his neighbours.

“Then there was a gust of wind that I figured would break something.”

A tree toppled over in Petkau’s yard and shingles from someone else’s roof landed on his. Pieces of siding, shingles and tree branches littered the street.

The storm tore a path of destruction throughout the residential area in the southwest part of the city. Several homes were damaged, including a home on Tolcross Gate with significant structural issues caused by a fallen tree.

The Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service said emergency personnel confirmed there was no one inside, shut off the home’s natural gas supply and taped off the property.

Gusts in the area exceeded 100 km/h, according to Environment Canada meteorologist Brian Proctor. Winnipeg’s water and waste department recorded 23 millimetres of rain at the West End Sewage Treatment Plant in the area.

On Wednesday the Northern Tornadoes Project confirmed a moderate-strength tornado touched down in Whyte Ridge and gave the storm a preliminary EF1 rating, the second-lowest rating on the Enhanced Fujita Scale.

The wind separated one home’s attached garage from the main structure. Shingles were sheared off multiple roofs, littering lawns and the street. Large trees were uprooted and branches were scattered on the road.

A group of trees that had fallen over blocked nearby Columbia Drive to motorists most of Tuesday morning.

At least one other home on Tolcross had its roof ripped off. A woman who was home at the time, who declined to give her name, was in the garage smoking a cigarette when the storm hit.

“(The rain) just started coming down, like pouring. And then the roof just started to go,” she said. “I couldn’t believe it.”

Whyte Ridge resident Brad Anderson is no meteorologist, but said he’s certain the storm he experienced Monday was a twister.

“The shingles were ripped off my neighbour’s roof, but a plastic cup I left in my backyard didn’t even tip over,” he said. “I’d love for someone to explain that.”

The City of Winnipeg was still assessing the impacts from the storm. Spokeswoman Tamara Forlanski said tree damage is the main issue. There had been 328 reports of downed or damaged trees as of 2 p.m. Tuesday.

Hydro is dealing with numerous outages across the province, including several in Winnipeg. Spokeswoman Amy-Jean MacLean said crews were working to restore an outage in the city’s Monroe West area, where tree branches took down some lines and severed power for about 2,300 customers.

As of Tuesday afternoon, about 5,100 customers in Winnipeg were without power, but MacLean expected the number to fluctuate as tree limbs weakened by the storm could still detach and fall on power lines.

Southern Manitoba is just entering its severe storm season, but Proctor said the frequency of the storms seen thus far has been unusual, and can be attributed to instability in the atmosphere.

“We’ve had available moisture and wind shear in the atmosphere to support storms,” he said. “It’s been an incredibly impactful month.”

Coun. Janice Lukes woke to many messages and photos of the storm on her phone. She was at home Monday night and was shocked by the storm’s intensity.

“It was actually scary,” the Waverley West councillor said.

Mayor Scott Gillingham said residents should be able to access funds via the province’s Disaster Financial Assistance Program.

— With files from Joyanne Pursaga

nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca