A wild storm moved through southern and central Alberta Tuesday evening. It grew so intense, it triggered a tornado warning east of Calgary.
Residents were forced to take shelter as it hit parts of Lyalta, Langdon and Carseland.
Mother Nature showed no mercy on the Pennacchiettis’ Lyalta acreage.
Hail shredded their yard, broke glass and the unforgiving force of it tore apart their awning.
The winds sent remnants of it clear across the yard.
Danielle Pennacchietti said it was scary.
“It sounded like a freight train. We couldn’t see out the windows and it just started trashing everything. It knocked out that gazebo big time and just took everything out.
“It was golf ball sized hail at minimum.”
Her husband, Jim Pennacchietti, said the storm moved in fast.
“Nothing you can do but watch. You don’t want to run outside or you would get pummeled pretty bad.”
“We were just walking around and shaking our heads, relieved it didn’t hurt our livestock. This is all replaceable,” Danielle said.
This is the second time they’ve been hit.
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In 2012, a tornado tore through, destroying their home. Environment Canada said the straight-line winds are what caused the damage this time.
Prairie stormchaser Chris Ratzlaff said that type of weather system can be devastating.
“Straight-line winds can be more damaging than a tornado. They don’t get quite the attention that tornadoes do, but they can certainly have as much of an impact.”
He was tracking two simultaneous storms.
“The first one was travelling a distance from Longview to Hanna and it cut south of Calgary, that’s the one that was a tornado warning, around Strathmore and Carseland area.
“The second storm I was tracking produced from Calgary to Drumheller, so little bit west of the first one.
“When you go out and there are multiple storms at play… you want to see both. You don’t want to miss one.”
He captured the storm in its glory, but others, like Amanda Potter, her husband and their two sons were hiding from it.
“We all just huddled underneath the stairs and took shelter.”
When they came out to assess their Langdon property, they were in disbelief.
“Just seeing the collapsed buildings, the trees, the playground was gone. We were completely shocked.
“It looked like it snowed out here last night,” Potter said.
The wind also shoved their a metal ‘C-can’ right off its concrete pad.
“Definitely shook me up a little bit,” Potter said.
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