MIDALE — Midale residents spent the weekend cleaning up after a powerful thunderstorm, packing strong winds, struck the area.
A severe thunderstorm warning was issued for the RM of Cymri, including Midale, in the late afternoon of Aug. 8. Coun. Gregg Prawdzik, who is the town's deputy mayor, said the storm lingered over the community for about 40 minutes. Prawdzik said he's been told the winds exceeded 110 kilometres per hour.
Power was knocked out to the town for a couple of hours. The outage lasted longer at the town's pumphouse, so people were temporarily asked to be cautious about their water usage until electricity was restored and water could be pumped to town. Prawdzik was impressed with the work of the SaskPower crews to get the power back on quickly.
As for damage, the metal roof was ripped off one building that was converted from a shop into living quarters.
"That flew into the neighbour's yard, but I don't think that did any damage. I have one neighbour across the street from me. A branch fell on her [Ford] Bronco and damaged the hood of her car," he said.
Prawdzik noted another neighbour lost their shed when it blew apart. The bar and restaurant Highway 39 had metal ripped off by the winds. The former motel behind the restaurant, which has been closed for several years, had metal blow away as well.
The wind also damaged four or five sponsorship spots on a large billboard across Highway 39 from the town.
Trees were uprooted by the storm, he said, and a lot of branches and leaves needed to be cleaned up.
"Everybody in the community worked together to get all of the trees cleaned up," he said. "I opened the dump today … and one of the town councillors was out there."
People from the community made piles of branches in their yards, while others went around town and picked them up.
Prawdzik said Midale isn't a stranger to storm damage; last year it stemmed from a strong hail storm that went through the town. He doesn't believe there was much hail damage this time.
Prawdzik said he has heard of people in the Oungre area who saw baseball-sized hail, while Environment Canada said its spotters saw tennis ball-sized hail.
