A fast-hitting storm has left a lasting affect on the town of Kerrobert, Sask.
On Monday evening, the town of 970 people located southwest of Saskatoon was hit by 95-kilometre winds throughout the night.
When they woke up, residents found fallen trees, power outages and closed buildings.
“We saw the storm coming as we were going to bed and the lightning pretty much woke everybody up,” said Brad Murphy, a Kerrobert resident and council member. “The wind was just ferocious. There was there was some wind activity around here that we haven’t felt for an awful long time.”
The community has weathered severe storms in the past. Murphy recalled a scary hailstorm in 2015 that damaged vehicles and homes across the town. He said what made this latest one scary was that it came under a cover of darkness.
“It was it was a scary event for a lot of people in town that I’ve talked to,” Murphy said. “They’ve been in homes for years and they’ve never felt that kind of force on their home before and a lot of people did take cover in the basement.”
While the storm may have been the worst they’ve seen in years, it brought out the best in the community.
“Today we witnessed the best of people,” the Town of Kerrobert Culture and Recreation said in a Facebook post.
“By 7 a.m. working chainsaws and visiting between neighbours were as plentiful on the streets as the downed trees. Throughout the day families of all ages pitched in to help.”
A free community barbeque was held Tuesday night as the town grappled with the damage. Murphy said it was inspiring but nothing new to see the community come together to help one another.
“Everybody did their part and kind of led by example, whether it was in their own neighborhood or from the seat of a town tractor,” he said. “Our guys were great right from the start of it to the end of it.”
Despite the effort, there is a lot of work to be done over the coming days and there will be challenges.
The town is currently rationing water and supplies while the power remains out in some of the surrounding area as SaskPower works to fix the outage.
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