‘It was incredible’: Residents react to powerful Regina storm

August went out like a lion in Regina as a powerful supercell ripped through the city.

Neighbourhoods in the northwest area of the city took the brunt of the storm as many homes showed battle scars from golf ball-sized hail, or had the remnants of trees scattered on their vehicles or lawns.

William and Diane Bell live in Lakewood, a neighbourhood they have called home for more than 30 years. They said Tuesday night’s storm rivalled any other they had seen since they started living in the area.

“I thought the roof was going to break on the house,” William said. “It was incredible. I’ve never heard that impact sound.”

“There is nothing left to our whole backyard. We are a little bit heartbroken,” Diane added.

This tree was completely uprooted. pic.twitter.com/4ZULrmjZ3z

— Logan Stein (@L0ganStein) September 1, 2021

Dozens of trees in northwest Regina were damaged, including one that was struck by lightning.

One lady 980 CJME spoke with said she thought her home suffered thousands of dollars in damages from the hail.

“My siding is covered in holes,” the lady said as she raked branches off the sidewalk. “My garden is a total disaster.

“I’m just glad I didn’t have a metal roof.”

Environment Canada said Wednesday morning that golf ball-sized hail as well as wind gusts of up to 95 kilometres per hour were reported in the north end of the city.

“Certainly with this case, the north end of the city got the brunt of the storm for sure,” Environment Canada’s Chris Stammers said. “It was definitely one of the more intense storms of the summer.

“There were some pictures that made it look like winter in Regina (on Tuesday). So (it was a) very, very intense storm for this late in the season especially.”

SGI spokesperson Tyler McMurchy believes Tuesday night’s storm will result in an abundance of insurance claims flooding in.

“We do know this was a somewhat significant event. It’s a very severe storm hitting a large urban area,” McMurchy said. “So we know there will be some claims filed as a result.

“We live in Saskatchewan (and) storms do happen. We’ve had a couple of significant events in the last last couple of months, but I’m not sure that our storm numbers are up.”