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Looking for his bedroom’s triple dresser, Brian Brown could only find the front panel of one drawer.
“Where the hell did it go?” the Manitoba retiree said Monday.
“It took us 10 years to renovate it,” he said of the house. “We’ve been here for 22 years. It took 10 seconds to do this.”
Brown had been spending some time that day sorting through whatever he could salvage after a tornado destroyed his century-old farm house in Rossburn, about 275 kilometres to the west of Winnipeg, on the weekend.
“I’ve never seen wind like that,” he said. “It blew two big windows in the front and the door all simultaneously — just blew them right in. And the trees — like, the whole forest fell down.”
The tornado touched down southwest of the western Manitoba community Sunday evening, as severe thunderstorms rolled over the region.
Environment and Climate Change Canada said some areas in the province were walloped by wind gusts of between 70 and 100 kilometres an hour, with quarter-sized hail in the Shell Valley and reports of another tornado in the Roblin area.
Rossburn Municipality Mayor Shirley Kalyniuk said Monday the tornado in that community hit at least one other house, though nobody was in it at the time.
“I was just changing a load of laundry, so I didn’t realize it was that bad,” Brown’s wife, Bernadine, said, adding he told her to “hit the floor.”
The tornado blew away the brick home’s roof and the upper half of the family barn.
Bernadine said she and her husband were lucky they managed to take cover just before the tornado sent glass shards and other debris flying through the air.
Their five cats were also unharmed. But many of the retirees’ belongings, including glasses and hearing aids, were buried under the rubble.
“It rained last night, and then no roof,” Brian Brown said. “So any clothes that you were going to save, what now?”
The Browns bought the farm house — near Brian’s childhood home — more than two decades ago. The home was built in 1904, and the couple had been working to restore it for several years.
“We haven’t really talked about what we’re going to do, but Brian was a lot younger when we did all the work ourselves,” Bernadine said. “That wouldn’t be possible now because he’s also battling cancer.”
Environment Canada said a team would be in the community to assess the damage caused by the tornado.
Kalyniuk said she would be speaking with the municipality’s council to see how it can support the families that were affected.
The Browns said their family and friends have been able to keep them stable, with a neighbour agreeing to take their three horses. They were also looking to reach out to their insurer.
Brian said figuring out what else needs to be done is too much to think about.
A couple living near Rossburn, Man., say it took only a matter of seconds for a tornado to reduce their century-old brick house to rubble. They were inside the home when it happened.
