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Meadow Lake Provincial Park was hit by a severe storm that tossed campers and uprooted trees Saturday afternoon.
Campers reported strong winds, heavy rain and an unconfirmed tornado. Laumans Landing and Murray Doell Campground were the worst hit areas.
Volunteers at Murray Doell Campground helped remove downed trees and people stuck inside campers following a destructive storm on June 29, 2019. (Melissa Kuzior/Submitted)
Earlier Environment Canada had issued an alert about the potential for severe thunderstorms capable of producing strong wind gusts, up to toonie size hail and heavy rain.
Melissa Kuzior was with her family visiting Lac des Îles Saturday afternoon before the storm hit. They were in a spot overlooking the lake when they saw a water spout develop. She said moments later, the water stared to rise and the “massive mess” unfolded.
Kuzior, her husband, daughter and daughter’s friend got in their vehicle to leave and head back to the village of Goodsoil. As they did, she said trees started to come crashing down, deer and other animals were running across the road to escape and significant hail started to fall.
“My husband kept saying it was going to be fine. … We are okay,” she said. “My daughter and her friend were in the back and they were bawling. They were scared. They didn’t know what to expect.”
Her husband and a number of others have returned to Murray Doell Campground with chainsaws as a number of people are said to be trapped in campers and trees are strewn about.
“My husband did text me not long ago. I asked him how things were going out there and he said not good,” she said.
She has heard of some injuries but could not speak to the severity.
She watched STARS Air Ambulance pass over Goodsoil and saw about a dozen or so emergency vehicles head towards the area. Despite the reports, there have been no confirmed injuries from the storm as of Saturday evening.
STAR-11 (Saskatoon) has been dispatched for a scene call emergency in the Meadow Lake, SK area.
— STARS Ambulance (@STARSambulance) June 29, 2019
Later, the hall in the village of Goodsoil was opened for those impacted by the storm.
Dozens of emergency personnel and volunteers helping those impacted by the storm on June 29, 2019 (Melissa Kuzior/Submitted)
Barry Butler, who works with a property development company at Laumans Landing, became stuck in the middle of it all.
He said at around 4:45 p.m., he was looking at a lot a family member had purchased when the storm hit.
“We were looking at the lot and suddenly we felt the wind change and I said we need to get to the car and by the time we got to the car it had hit,” he said. “We tried getting away from the trees but they were blown down all around us.”
Butler said he has experienced a plow wind go through the area before but said this one “felt different.”
“This one felt like the wind was coming from every direction,” he said. “This one knocked over trailers, tore slides off of trailers and ripped a part of a roof off of a house. I’ve never seen that before.”