A powerful thunderstorm hit Regina hard Tuesday evening.
The storm rolled through just after 7 p.m., bringing with it high winds, heavy rain, lightning and hail.
The storm knocked out power to Pense, northeast Regina and surrounding areas.
Many were quick to grab their phones and snap photos and videos.
Some show what appears to be loonie-sized hail in some parts of Regina.
James Newman, who lives in the Maple Ridge neighbourhood, said it was a wicked storm.
“It was a little scary for a little while,” Newman said.
“We weren’t sure if we should get to the basement.”
Newman said it started out dark, then the rain and wind kicked in.
“The hail just began and it was a good one. The whole yard is just covered,” he said.
“I thought for sure we were going to get a tornado. The clouds looked it. It was dark. It was blowing sideways, upside down, all over the place.”
Newman said his property did not suffer much damage, but some neighbours weren’t so lucky.
“One neighbour, his fence is totally trashed. It looked like a little machine gun went to it,” he said.
“A couple of neighbours took a little bit of water in the basement (and one) across the street had a lake up to about our waist beside his house.”
The hail was not the only element to damage property though, as lightning strikes split or felled several trees, including one in Regina resident Rod Anderson’s front yard.
“I was in disbelief haha, it’s a tree that is over 40 years old so I’m sad to see it go but it’s gone,” he said.
For some in the Northwest area of the city, the storm was intense and the property damage was extensive.
“The hail came out of nowhere for probably a good half an hour. I’ve honestly never seen that much hail other than in pictures,” said Regina resident Melanie Laurin.
I didn’t even see the damage until this morning because it was already getting dark, but I just installed a new fence six weeks ago, PVC, it’s full of holes,” she said.
According to Environment Canada, a super cell storm like Reginans Tuesday night, is composed of a top layer of moisture in the air that fuels the storm, with underlying cold air that produces the hail and rain.
Damage claims have been pouring in to SGI since the storm hit. As of 2:15 p.m. today, they had received over 1700 auto claims and over 300 property claims, with almost all of them being hail related.
The City of Regina says that the clean-up effort is underway and their focus right now is to keep people safe by removing any debris or trees that might fall.
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