‘It just twisted’: Alberta farmers take cover in workshop during Sunday’s tornado

Sarah and Ernie Stoodley saw the sky darken and the clouds turn green over their farm near Sedgewick, Alta., on Sunday.

“We were outside working in the yard and our grandson’s wife sent us some pictures of the hail they were getting and they’re only about six miles from us. It was bigger than golf balls,” Sarah explained. “So I said to Ernie, ‘maybe we’d better go in.’ We were watching the sky and the clouds were just turning and then they were kind of a green colour.”

That’s when they knew, they needed to take cover.

“We quickly got in the shop, got the door shut and that’s when it hit. We could see stuff just blowing all over.”

READ MORE: Amateurs with cellphones worry professional Alberta storm chaser 

Sarah said trees and debris and gravel were swirling around them.

“I said to Ernie, ‘oh my goodness! It looks like everything is going to go!’

“The dirt – it just twisted. I didn’t think we’d have any gravel left in the driveway! It just blew.”

Watch below: Five tornadoes have now been confirmed over one weekend of wild weather across Alberta. The storm that hit close to Sedgewick was particularly scary for the Stoodley family. As Fletcher Kent explains, they were far too close for comfort.

When the severe weather passed, the couple – who’ve lived on the farm for about 20 years – opened the shop door.

“Terrible,” Sarah recalled. “Our fences were down for the cattle. Our van that we have in storage, it was blown over. Another shed was picked up and blown into our dog kennel. It wrecked the chain link fence and took a roof off another one of the old buildings and destroyed the walls and stuff. A cattle shed got blown somewhere.”

“We have pieces of lumber and tin and everything all over,” Sarah said.

READ MORE: Tornado touches down near Killam, Alta. 

Environment Canada later confirmed a tornado touched down in the area, about 165 kilometres southeast of Edmonton.

“This is a confirmed tornado, but it has not yet been rated by Environment Canada,” Global Edmonton meteorologist Jesse Beyer said.

“This is storm season and when tornadoes happen, typically the damage is quite localized, as is the case with the Stoodley’s farm.”

Environment Canada issued a tornado warning for Flagstaff County at 4:24 p.m. including Alliance, Bellshill Lake, Lougheed and Hardisty.

The warning was dropped at 4:46 p.m.

READ MORE: ‘It was chaos’: witness to funnel cloud in central Alberta as tornado warning was issued

Sarah said it wasn’t until after their farm was hit that they heard about the warning.

“A warning came over about five minutes after this had happened,” she said.

“The other granddaughter called and said, ‘There’s a warning out for the BellShill area,’ and I said, ‘well it’s a little late. It kind of hit here.'”

Despite the close call, Sarah and her family are thankful.

“You know what? We’re lucky. We’re OK,” she said. “Stuff is stuff. You can replace it or fix it, that’s the main thing.”