People looking to escape the heat with a weekend away at the lake were woken up by trees falling and loud thunder in the Debden, Murray Point and Emma Lake areas.
As a storm system made its way through the area late Friday and early Saturday morning people described the damage left on Twitter.
“My camper is destroyed,” Terrin Bjarnason shared in a tweet around 4 a.m. Saturday. “Thankfully I was able to crawl out with only minor scratches and the kids and hubby were at the back of the trailer and didn’t get hit.”
My camper is destroyed. Thankfully I was able to crawl out with minor scratches and kids & hubby were at the back of the trailer that didn't get hit. #murraypoint #emmalake #skstorm pic.twitter.com/MudaQpjcA6
— Terri Bjarnason (@terrishky) July 7, 2018
In another tweet, posted around 1 a.m., Destiny McPeek described hearing emergency crews and roads being blocked by fallen trees.
chaos @ camp.Trees down, campers crushed, step dads truck took a tree,can hear emergency crews trying to rescue people trapped in a camper. The roads are blocked everywhere by these 50’ spruce. somehow my kids slept thru this. Praying for no injuries. #skstorm #murraypoint pic.twitter.com/9iLYXeezGc
— destiny mcpeek (@desmcpeek) July 7, 2018
Environment Canada Meteorologist David Baggaley told 650 CKOM Saturday morning the worst of it was over.
“Through the evening (Friday) we did get reports of quarter-sized hail later that changed to hen-egg sized hail in the Neilburg area,” he said.
As the system continued east from the Battleford area Baggaley says it evolved.
“It (the storm) gave very strong winds and heavy downfall,” he said. “It tends to be very localised, but they were very strong thunderstorms for sure.”
According to Baggaley, the area north of the Battleford and Prince Albert along with the Parkland Region were the worst hit areas.
Murray Point campground chaos
Lakeland and District Fire Department kept busy dealing with the aftermath of the storm.
Crews were called to Murray Point campground, about 55 kilometers northwest of Prince Albert, to help a person trapped in a camper by a fallen tree at 12:37 a.m. Saturday.
Within 40 minutes fire crews responded and extricated six more people injured and trapped by trees at the campground.
In a Facebook post, the department said the damage is significant.