Weekend storms cause extensive damage in parts of Saskatchewan

With dozens of severe thunderstorm warnings issued in recent days in Saskatchewan, the weather delivered to numerous lakeside communities including Morin Lake, 170 kilometres north of Saskatoon.

Pontoons were blown across the lake, docks ripped from the shore, hundreds of massive trees uprooted and tossed on houses like twigs after a powerful plow wind ripped through the area over the weekend.

Claire Lewko, who built a cabin at Morin Lake in 1999, said reality is sinking in.

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“Who knows how much damage is in there and what it’s going to take to fix?” she questioned while surveying the damage caused by a massive tree, estimated to be 100 years old, that toppled over in the five-minute long storm, landing on the roof.

“It’s terrifying because there’s so much noise from the wind and so much chaos that all you hear is this whoom, whoom and that’s the trees hitting the ground I guess.”

Residents at the lakeside community of roughly 100 people recalled Friday evening as deceivingly serene – 11 p.m. was the calm before the storm.

“Oh it seemed like the type of storm that could have hurt a lot of people,” said Gaetan Couture, the area councillor in the RM of Canwood.

There are unconfirmed reports of one young boy, tenting, with minor injuries from a downed tree. Everyone else escaped unscathed.

“There was trees along all the road. We couldn’t get out,” said Couture. “It’s amazing how the community came together. Until 3:30 in the morning there were people out opening the road so that people could get out in case of an emergency.”

So far SGI has received 485 claims for damaged vehicles and 196 property damage claims.

“It’s common for us to see a spike in claims right after big storms, and other claims come in over the following weeks,” according to Laurissa Kainz with the provincial insurer.

Much of the forest that’s been knocked out has been hauled to an area at the edge of the campground. The pile is high and there’s a lot more debris to come. Fred Henderson, owner of Clip and Trim trees out of Prince Albert, described this as some of the most severe damage he’s dealt with in 25 years of business.

“It’s more tree damage than structural damage. I think a lot of the patrons got lucky on that,” he said.

The company has a busy week ahead.

“We’ve actually got calls to respond to Emma Lake tomorrow, we’re booked there and then Candle Lake Wednesday and then we’ll be back to Morin Lake Thursday, Friday and until the jobs are done.”

SaskPower has restored services to most of the estimated 2,000 people who were affected among the areas hardest hit.

And while work continues to return life to normal, it will be decades to undo the damage done by one quick storm.

“This used to be full of trees,” said Lewko. “Now it’s just kind of apocalyptic.”