Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 29, 2015, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE B4 T ILSTON - When Fred Raynor's family sought shelter in his farmhouse basement in the hopes of weathering the monster storm, he told them he wasn't going anywhere. The father of six and grandfather of seven has lived on the farm near Tilston, 144 kilometres southwest of Brandon, for 51 years. He was going to sit at his kitchen table and look out the big front window and watch whatever was about to happen. " I said I wasn't going down, because if something was going to get me, I wanted to see it," Raynor said Tuesday. " I sat in that chair over there and watched it." " It" was the wedge tornado - meaning the funnel was as wide as it was tall - that touched down near Tilston Monday around 8: 30 p. m. Already, it's been informally dubbed " tornado of the year" for North America by pro tornado hunter Greg Johnson. The tornado's path took it right through Raynor's yard, tearing up dozens of trees and destroying almost all the service and storage buildings on his farm. " I'm not real sure what time it was, roughly 8: 30, that you could see it coming from the west. Really cloudy. Black, totally black, cloud rolling in," Raynor said in his farmhouse kitchen. " There was an awful crack of thunder, just - psssh - shook everything." Raynor said he thought the worst had passed when a storm chaser - one of many who set out to see the action - showed up on his property, and told him to clear out fast. " The guy says, ' Get in your truck, get everybody in your truck, and go south.' Get out of here, he said, because it's still in the area," Raynor said. Raynor and his family headed a few kilometres down the road and gathered with other family members at his daughter's house. Safe in the house, surrounded by his brood, Raynor said he started to relax. " At one point, I didn't know how to handle it," he said. " Once I got there, got sitting down in the house, got a cup of coffee into me, I kind of settled down, and I found out everybody was all right." " Neighbours were all right, both sides, everybody. So I calmed down. But I was up in the air, I really was. I guess you could call me scared, the only way that I know," he said. " I'd never been through anything in my life like that before - nothing, nothing, not a thing." Late Tuesday afternoon, Raynor's house was buzzing - food brought over from neighbours, calls coming in from family friends to assist in the cleanup, and the extensive Raynor clan, kids and grandkids, clearing out trees, hauling wood, helping out. " We lost all these trees here, which means nothing, really. The trees will grow back," he said. " Anne ( his wife) had a chicken house along out there, with about 400 little chickens, little guys. It's gone, and the chickens are gone, most of them." " Grandma's house, it's the one next to us. Nobody's living in it. It's still here. Ours is still here. Barn's still here. And we're still here," he said. " And thank God for that." To Raynor, the tornado was a cautionary experience. " It was just Mother Nature showing us she's the boss," he said. " I think there's no two ways about it." A few kilometres away, Dakota Radcliffe, 15, was in a truck with his brother, trying to get a look at the tornado. They had been planning to follow it and skirt around its western edge, but it caught up with them, and they were forced to drive into the ditch for safety. Visibility was so bad and the wind so strong, Radcliffe held his phone camera up for his brother to look through to see the road better. " We were on the road, we were driving, and there was almost no visibility whatsoever. You could feel the truck kind of shaking a bit for a couple of miles, and then, all of a sudden at one point, I'd say at least three of the wheels were off the ground while we were still on the highway," he said. Sheltering in the ditch alongside Highway 2, eight kilometres west of Reston, the brothers sat for nearly 10 minutes waiting out the storm. " We were just praying," Radcliffe said. " It was pretty emotional." In the ditch, the driver side of the truck was being lifted off the ground, his brother added, " thrown around like a rag doll." " You could barely see the lines on the highway and just - lightning. Everywhere. And you could see the air, and the rain just twirling in front of us," Dakota said. " A lot of wind, thunder and kind of a low, moaning sound. We think that was the tornado." Dad Robert Radcliffe was also out chasing the storm, but he wasn't with his sons when they pulled over. He was on the phone with them as they sat there, and said he was " pretty tore up." " Basically, ( the conversation) was just, saying ' I love you' and reassuring them that we were coming to find them. And you know, just to hang on, basically," he said. " As much as anything, it was to keep conversation so that, I think, they knew and I knew that we were still there and OK." In Virden, Taylor Nahachewsky, 16, and her family were sitting in the basement, listening to a handheld radio by candlelight to hear updates on the storm. She has lived in the southwestern Manitoba town her whole life and said she has seen a lot of storms. None of them has come close to this one, she said. " It was really, really scary. I've never felt anything like that before," she said. She and her family took refuge in the basement for two hours, following the storm's progress on social media until the power went out, and their phones died. After that, they listened to a handheld radio until they heard the tornado had moved on. " The wind was whistling against the house. We heard hail hitting the house," she said. " Even when the storm was far away, we went outside to watch, and all we could hear was a rumbling the entire time and it never stopped. And lightning was constant throughout the entire night." When she heard the storm was over, she felt " very relieved and happy and safe." Her dad, Don Nahachewsky, said he was surprised at how little damage has been reported. " It's a miracle, really," he said. " It's really amazing that nobody really got hurt, because I guess it came pretty close to town. " It was a close call." aidan. geary@ freepress. mb. ca B 4 WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, JULY 29, 2015 TORNADO TERROR winnipegfreepress. com Saskatchewan Melita Reston Tilston Souris Virden Brandon Portage La Prairie Winnipeg 2 1 10 20 km 83 N 8: 28 pm 10: 55 pm Manitoba 9: 50 pm Timeline of destruction Path of the Tornado The tornado touches down just north of Pierson. Tilston twister to be featured on TV GREG Johnson admits " any sane person" would never put him or herself in the path of a tornado. But he makes a living doing exactly that. Johnson is a professional storm chaser and has chased storms across the continent. He got up close and personal with the tornado near Tilston, and said he expects it will come to be called the " tornado of the year for North America." Johnson said the tornado impressed him " from its size, the violence of the tornado as far as what it was doing, and visually just how interesting it was." " At one point, we were watching the asphalt being ripped off the surface of the highway, which is just amazing to see," he said. Johnson is the host of Regina- based TV show Tornado Hunters , set to begin its new season in October on C& T. Monday's event was so spectacular, he said, it will likely be the season finale for this year's series. Asked to describe the storm Monday, Johnson was briefly at a loss. " Holy smokes, where do I start?" he asked. " The takeaway I had from last night was definitely the sounds. It really does sound like a jet engine from an airplane. Some people say a freight train - I think it's more like a jet engine. It's got a higher pitch. " Looking at a tornado, some people think, because they watch movies, it'll be really windy in your face, and there'll be debris flying around towards you, and all that kind of stuff," he said. " But the opposite is kind of true. As you're looking at the tornado, the wind's hitting you in the back, and everything's being sucked in towards the tunnel." Last night, Johnson said, was a " perfect example." " I jumped out of the truck to get pictures, and literally this wall of rain and wind sort of hits me in the back," he said. " So I'm literally leaning back into the wind just so that I can get some pictures." Asked why he chases storms, Johnson put it simply. " It's an addiction, for sure. I'm not going to lie," he said. " Tornadoes are the fastest land speeds on Earth, and being up close and personal is exactly as exciting as you would imagine it to be." But there's more to it, he explained. " Our team, we're not meteorologists, we're not scientists... I have a specific task, and that is to report and document these kinds of storms," he said. " Let's face it, any sane person doesn't put themselves in the path of the tornado... it's hard to get really good photos and videos of tornados. For me, the thrill is capturing the imagery, and being able to tell those stories and share those stories." " A big part of what we do as well has to do with public safety," he added. " Our first job is to call ( the tornado) in to the authorities." Johnson said the storm will likely be " the iconic tornado" of 2015 in North America. " This is my favourite and most interesting, and probably largest, Canadian tornado I've ever seen," he said. " It probably ranks in the top five of all time of all the tornadoes I've ever witnessed." COURTESY TORNADO HUNTERS Storm's fury unrelenting ' I'd never been through anything in my life like that before - nothing, nothing, not a thing' - Tilston- area farmer Fred Raynor, who rode out much of the tornado's fury at his kitchen table Survivors feared for lives as twister raged overhead PHOTOS BY MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Fred Raynor sits at his table, where he watched the storm before he had a chance to flee to his daughter's house. A shed on the Raynor property was destroyed by trees downed by the tornado. By Aidan Geary A piece of metal siding hangs from a downed power line close to Tilston. MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ' It probably ranks in the top five of all time of all the tornadoes I've ever witnessed' - Greg Johnson, host of TV's Tornado Hunters, who was on hand for Monday's twister B_ 04_ Jul- 29- 15_ FP_ 01. indd B4 7/ 28/ 15 10: 55: 45 PM ;