OUTLOOK, Sask. – Part of a school gymnasium roof was ripped off when a strong storm walloped parts of central Saskatchewan on Wednesday night.
The roof was draped over the side of the building when students arrived for classes Thursday morning at the elementary school in Outlook, about 100 kilometres southwest of Saskatoon.
No one was hurt and the school remains open.
Heavy rain, golf-ball-sized hail and wind gusts up to 90 kilometres an hour were reported in other areas of the province, but there were no reports of tornadoes.
Roxan Foursha, spokeswoman for the Sun West School Division, says damage to the school’s roof is estimated at $300,000 to $400,000.
Tarps have been put in place to keep rain out of the gym until the roof can be fixed.
“It will be a total replacement,” said Foursha, who added classes are going ahead as scheduled.
“Everything is going ahead like a normal school day.”
But students are not being allowed to use the gym. Staff are making alternate arrangements for physical education classes, she said.
About 270 kilometres to the south, near the small community of Kincaid, the storm blew the roof off a garage belonging to Krista Ross and her family.
Ross, her husband and their four young children huddled in the basement when the storm hit. When they later left to assess the damage, they found the wind had also moved their large semi truck.
“It blew our garage east and it blew our semi west,” Ross said.
“One side of the wall of our garage is standing up on our truck. Otherwise it would all be gone.”
She said the storm also destroyed a neighbour’s greenhouse and some outbuildings and damaged a new addition on another house.
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