Document Type
Report
Publication Date
8-21-2011
Abstract
Sifto salt mine at lakeshore had signficant damage, with various machinery, booms, and buildings damaged or destroyed. One Sifto employee was killed. The tornado struck right through the exact centre of the downtown, causing F3 damage there. At the central square with the courthouse, the north side had trees down from the north, and the south side had trees down from the south. Many heritage brick buildings heavily damaged. Vehicles tossed and rolled. Some of the buildings hardest-hit by the tornado, like the landmark Victoria Street United Church and the former opera house, have been torn down. In residential areas, there were a number of houses with roofs removed and some with walls removed as well. About 30 homes will end up being demolished. Hundreds perhaps thousands of trees were snapped or uprooted. Some trees were carried several metres from their original location. In Benmiller, at least one house lost its roof, a 100-yr old barn was destroyed, and the Benmiller Inn had to hotel buildings lose their roofs. The maximum path width was right at the shore and quickly decreased with inland distance, likely owing to increased friction in the transition from water to land. The maximum damage was estimated to be lower-end F3, with winds to 280 km/h.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.