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A tornado touched down in northwestern Alberta last night, pulling trees from the earth and ripping roofs from homes in the village of Girouxville.
The tornado that passed through Monday evening caused extensive property damage and cut power to much of the village of 300 residents about 55 kilometres south of Peace River.
In a statement issued Tuesday morning, the Northern Tornadoes Project confirmed that “at least one tornado” occurred in the Peace River area in northwestern Alberta on Monday evening.
Officials with NTP, a Western University project aimed at monitoring activity in Canada, said its team has fielded multiple reports of damage from the storm system and one of their survey teams will be deployed to the community to investigate.
In an interview with CBC News on Tuesday morning, Girouxville‘s foreman, Ryley Mullen, said a funnel cloud approached the village around 8 p.m., bringing severe winds and torrential rain.
‘Heading right towards us’
Mullen said he heard about the tornado from his wife, who was at the community soccer field and saw the swirling mass of grey on the horizon.
“I was to the east and all the boys were out on the soccer field for soccer practice. And that was a bit of a panic,” Mullen said.
“It [was] heading right towards us, like the funnel just kind of swirling around and went right overtop of us.”
As the severe winds moved through the village, some properties had their roofs torn off, Mullen said. Sheds and other small outbuildings were pulled from their foundations as power poles and trees were toppled.
Mullen estimates between 30 and 40 buildings were damaged in the path of the storm.
‘It was incredible’
He said the path of damage is narrow and random, with some of the most severely damaged properties standing next to buildings that were relatively untouched.
“There’s trees down and there’s lots of buildings with their shingles and parts of roofs missing,” he said. “Sheds have been displaced on top of people’s roofs.”
“I’ve never seen it rain that hard in my life. It was incredible,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Mullen said municipal and emergency crews are out clearing up the damage with the help of residents who are eager to help their neighbours.
No injuries have been reported, Mullen said.
In a post on social media on Monday, Forestry Minister Todd Loewen, who is also the MLA for the region, said he was able to tour the village overnight and emergency crews are out while residents are cleaning and repairing what they can.
