Residents in an area hit by a tornado Thursday night were working out the extent of the damage done Friday.
Environment Canada officials have confirmed a tornado touched down about five kilometres northwest of Breton, southwest of Edmonton, late Thursday afternoon.
Officials consider the tornado to be an EF 0 – the least powerful on the scale, but it certainly left a mark where in made contact.
The tornado passed through Jeff Gresham’s yard – he wasn’t home at the time, but his wife and 13-year-old nephew were.
“She was actually in our stable, which is behind us here, and my young nephew was in the house on his own,” Gresham told CTV News as he stood on his property. “Pretty traumatic events for both of them.”
He said pieces of his roof were torn off by the storm; neighbours helped him put tarps over the exposed areas. In addition, hundreds of trees were downed during the storm – and that led to the death of one of his horses.
“[They are] pretty much family pets and one of them had a tree fall on him, just right under the path of the tornado,” Gresham said.
A few kilometres away, a family confirmed to Environment Canada that one of their calves was missing, and believed to be dead.
“Right now we’re just looking at the different areas that sustained damage and trying to determine if that damage was caused by the tornado or by something associated with the thunderstorm itself,” Jesse Wagar, an Environment Canada meteorologist said.
Environment Canada said while it appears the tornado touched down several times, they’re reviewing damage reports to determine if it was consistently on the ground or not.
With files from Taylor Oseen
