‘Insurance people will be busy’: Carrot River cleans up storm damage

Carrot River has been hard at work cleaning up after a massive storm took out trees, roofs and power lines in the community.

The town near Nipawin in the province’s northeast was among the communities hit hardest by the series of severe storms that blew through Saskatchewan on Sunday evening.

Widespread damage was reported in several areas, including Estevan, Gravelbourg, Blaine Lake and several other communities in the province, with numerous reports of wind and hail damage.

The system that passed through Carrot River caused extensive damage to trees, blocking streets in the town. Trees also fell on power lines and broke power poles, according to SaskPower, causing power to the area to be knocked out from about midnight on.

“There’s trees everywhere,” said Roman Charko, mayor of Carrot River. “There’s roofs missing off buildings, shingles missing, power lines are down, no power in town.”

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Charko said a roof was blown off of a restaurant in town. Bins were tipped over, and a tower fell at a local fertilizer plant.

The most harrowing report was from a local campground, where Charko said a camper was flipped upside down.

“The guy was in it sleeping when it happened,” said Charko. “Maybe bruised up a bit, but he’s OK.”

Large hail contributed to the damage during the storm. (Randy Schmidt, Sask. Severe Weather Tracker/Facebook)

A major concern was the situation at Carrot River Health Centre, which lost power in the storm. As a result, the Saskatchewan Health Authority was directing people needing urgent care to either go to Nipawin or call 911.

There were also concerns the long term care facility connected to the health centre might have also lost power, but SHA said in a statement the care facility is fully operational and a backup generator in use.

SaskPower said its crews spent the day working to restore power in the community. According to the Crown power company, about 850 customers lost power, but by mid-afternoon on Monday power was restored to about 97 customers and good progress was being made. Crews from several districts were called in to Carrot River to help clear away the trees that had knocked down the power lines.

SaskPower said there were power outages in several other areas of the province after the storms, including the northwest and southeast, largely due to downed trees from the storm.

The company also reported that some areas north of Prince Albert lost power after a lightning strike damaged some of its equipment.

Terri Lang, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, said a straight-line wind could have been behind the damage in town.

“We know that Carrot River received quite a bit of wind damage,” said Lang. “It’s still being investigated, but that would appear to be straight-line winds, based on the amount of damage that occurred.”

Streets in Carrot River following the storm. (Randy Schmidt, Sask. Severe Weather Tracker/Facebook)

Charko said high winds and hail accompanied the storm, but was unable to say whether it was a tornado or a plow wind that caused it.

“There’s stuff that blew east and there’s stuff that blew west. That’s all I could tell you,” said Charko. He added that there was almost no damage just a mile and a half north of town, while there was more damage south of town and to the east.

Charko said the cleanup has begun, and people have come in to help remove the fallen trees. He expected those trees would be gone by Tuesday.

“Neighbours are cleaning up. There’s people who have come from other places to clean up. People are tarping their roofs where the shingles are gone,” said Charko.

“I imagine the insurance people will be busy.”