‘No rhyme or reason’: Plough winds wreak havoc to Kimball Lake Campground

“And it was a really actually entertaining thunder and lightning storm but all of a sudden the wind started in like a snap of the finger.”

Following the wind, came heavy sheets of rain and hail. Hofer said she has a beach front cabin attached to the store and she told her boys if the wind got stronger or the hail larger, it would take out the windows.

“I said ‘So, when I tell you to go down to the basement, you go down in the basement immediately.’”

Then it ended almost as quickly as it had began.

“I honestly thought the storm was over, we didn’t have any damage here at the store fortunate enough and I thought ‘OK. We’re good,’” she said.

Then she got a call from the daughter of a camper.

150 families and other campers had experienced something else entirely as the campground had not escaped the storm’s wrath. The call Hofer received informed her that campers in the overflow area were trapped.

“She said a whole bunch of trees went down and they can’t get out and they’re going around checking if everyone’s OK,” the owner said.

“When I went over, there were so manty trees across as you can see from the photos that I couldn’t even check on the first loop one to 19, let alone get to the overflow.”

Getting help at the late hour wasn’t an option, so the young boys went around on their scooters to check on campers and reported back to their mom that everyone was alright. Trucks, boats and trailers were another matter.

“It was pretty intense,” she said, noting the storm lasted no longer than 10 minutes.

Trees were uprooted and broken in half following a plough wind event during the night of Weds., July. 17. (Kimball Lake Store/Facebook)

“It just came through, like no warning.”

According to Terri Lang, meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, straight-line winds – downburst – were responsible for the damage. Known as plough winds in Saskatchewan, the damage differed from that of a tornado.

“When you see a tornado go through, everything looks like it’s been chopped into a blender,” she said.

“There’s just stuff everywhere, it’s thrown everywhere, it’s just a big mess.”

With microbursts – another name for straight-line winds – the carnage looks almost orderly by comparison.

“Usually everything is snapped off – trees are usually snapped off – halfway through or uprooted and generally they all fall in the same direction,” Lang said.

Hofer said some of the campers went to the service centre to sleep.

“’I said ‘Well, no doubt. Like, anybody with a tent would be scared enough that the service centre is a cement structure,’” she said.

Lang explained that was the best thing they could have done instead of being in tents or trucks.

“The brick house would’ve been – that’s the choice,” she said.

The storm did something unexpected. Amid the extensive damage and future insurance claims, it created a community within the campground. Once the storm ended, campers took matters into their own hands and worked together through the night to clear brush and debris with whatever they had available. They also dropped in on each other’s camp sites to check in, chat and take pictures of the destruction.

“I said to some of the campers ‘You guys probably more people camping during the storm and after then you ever did on an entire camping trip,” Hofer said.

The experience left the campers and the store owner with a mix of shock and awe. Not one person was injured – Something Lang called “A miracle.”

Hofer agreed that sentiment was felt among those in the campground.

“I said to people in the store, ‘I cannot believe there wasn’t even a broken arm,’” she said.

After seeing the totality of the damage to the vehicles, Hofer said she was sure they would find people under downed trees. It left her wondering how they would get ambulances through.

Trees were uprooted and broken in half following a plough wind event during the night of Weds., July. 17. (Kimball Lake Store/Facebook)

“I thought if it has to be, they take the board, run over to the campsite, run with the person, put the person in the ambulance and go,” she said.

Meanwhile, Hofer had recounted a conversation she had had with someone who worked at the Murray Doell Campground five years earlier when it was hit by a tornado. After hearing about what he witnessed, she had been struck by wonder.

“I said ‘Isn’t that amazing how nature works, just no rhyme or reason,” she said.

“Never underestimate nature.”

Lang recommends that whenever there is a storm or weather, to report it to ECCC by using #SKStorm on social media, email: skstorm@ec.gc.ca or phone: 1-800-239-0484.

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julialovettsquires@pattisonmedia.com

On X:194864

by Julia Lovett-Squires

‘No rhyme or reason’: Plough winds wreak havoc to Kimball Lake Campground

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