‘A twisted mess sitting on my roof’: Windstorm tears through Qu’Appelle Valley acreage

A powerful windstorm ripped through the Qu’Appelle Valley on Monday night, damaging at least one property in the area.

Aaron Saufert said a powerful windstorm blew patio furniture and ripped out the bolts on his deck on Sept. 2, 2019 at his acreage in the Qu’Appelle Valley. (Submitted by Aaron Saufert)

It happened after Environment Canada issued tornado warnings and severe thunderstorm watches around 5:30 p.m.

Aaron Saufert lives on an acreage in the Qu’Appelle Valley, northeast of Lumsden.

He was working in his shop at the time. He said things were calm to start.

“The winds picked up to gale-force winds. I looked out the window of my shop, and I saw my trampoline picked up and blown onto the roof of my house,” he said on Monday night. “(It’s) a twisted mess sitting on my roof right now.”

Winds blew his patio furniture through his patio railings, ripping some of the railing bolts out of the deck.

Some of his house’s shingles sustained damage; the roof lifted off part of the house’s frame, too, he said.

The winds lasted only for about a minute, he said.

“It was calm, and then it came through,” Saufert said. “I’d say it lasted less than a minute. And then it was done.”

Saufert said the funnel cloud looked big and powerful. He was thankful that he and his family were inside their home, otherwise they might have been hit by blowing debris.

Aaron Saufert said a powerful windstorm blew patio furniture and ripped out the bolts on his deck on Sept. 2, 2019 at his acreage in the Qu’Appelle Valley. (Submitted by Aaron Saufert)

He didn’t receive Environment Canada’s mobile alert message about the tornado warnings until 10 minutes after the strong winds blew over his house, he said.

Saufert’s closest neighbour is just a few hundred yards away; his property was apparently untouched.

“I phoned him after everything had calmed down, and he had zero damage,” Saufert said.

The experience was a reminder of how damaging tornadoes and wind storms can be, he said.

On Tuesday, Environment Canada confirmed a tornado did touch down in a field between Hume and Griffin at around 7:30 p.m. There weren’t any reports of damage.

— With files from 980 CJME’s Joseph Ho