Alameda family grateful to be alive after tornado destroys Saskatchewan farm

The Brock family farm is now something akin to a wasteland.

A tornado that ripped through the yard just south of Alameda Tuesday night, 234 km southeast of Regina, left only wreckage behind. In the cold light of day, chunks of ejected grain bin can be seen wrapped around the trees lining the property.

Danny Brock and his three children – ages 15, 13 and 12 – were home Tuesday during the day, knowing that weather warnings had been issued by Environment Canada.

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The family had little time to react as the tornado appeared and barrelled towards their family home.

While Danny is assessing the damage, he is grateful to be alive.

The Brock family savenges clothing and other items scattered around their yard after a tornado. (Gillian Massie/ 980 CJME)

“You know what goes through your head when something like this is happening? Hope to God that you’re going to make it alive,” Danny said.

“There was a point there I didn’t think we were going to, because I saw daylight come through the floor and I was just like, hang on, but there’s nothing to hang on to. We were still hunkered in the basement, and it got quiet, so I knew it was over.

“My neighbour phoned, and I told him my house got hit, so he was trying to get over here, but the hailstones were like tennis ball size, and he couldn’t see. And when I came out of the basement to look well, there’s no walls around me, and I saw the tornado leaving,” Danny recounted as he stood amid the debris.

Danny said he emerged from the basement to find some of the walls missing at his home. (Gillian Massie/ 980 CJME)

“I was trying to be as calm as I could for the kids, and my 15-year-old son, Roman, he was like a rock, like unreal, and he was hanging on, I was hanging on to all them, and I just said, I love you guys, I love you guys, and it’ll be all right.”

Danny isn’t sure how long the tornado stayed over them but felt that he had enough protection to keep his family safe.

“The only thing that was falling on us was insulation and dirt and grass and rain. But yeah, like honestly, the bathroom downstairs, like they say, put as many walls between you as you can. I think that’s the only thing that saved us, honestly.”

Thirteen-year-old Bronsyn admitted to being scared as the tornado rocked the house.

“We were like, laying on the basement floor, and we could, our ears popped in,” she recalled. “We could feel the pressure in our heads, and then we could hear the house getting ripped apart. You could just hear boards snapping and stuff,” Bronsyn recalled.

The kids even experienced nose bleeds because of the pressure.

One of the family dogs also died in the shop, as the tornado took its path overhead.

Devastation

As the family began the painstaking cleanup, the Brock’s family house was missing its roof, exposing a sight line right through to the kitchen. In shock, Danny barely noticed.

“I grabbed the kids and lifted them out of the house because there was glass everywhere, and boards and nails. We loaded them into the neighbour’s truck and we just turned around and (were) gone. I didn’t even, I didn’t even really look, I just knew the walls of the house were gone. I didn’t know anything else.”

It is only in the harsh daylight, Danny is assessing upturned cars, shredded trees and debris.

Much of the Brock farm yards trees toppled over in the tornado. (Gillian Massie/ 980 CJME)

He is not thinking of what has been lost, but rather all they still have.

“You know, it’s disheartening, like for sure it is. But in all honesty, that stuff can probably be replaced, or you got it in your memories.

“All that matters is that we’re all right. That’s all matters.”