The tornado in the RM of Alonsa, that killed one man, is being described as devastating. 

Alonsa Reeve Stan Asham says they don`t know when the cleanup will be close to finished, adding right now they are just clearing mostly fallen down trees.

“At least on land, we can get in there and get the trees, that’s about all that’s happening now is clearing trees out of yards and stuff. But, it’s the lake, it’s terrible. I was with Brian Pallister, the Premier, yesterday and he saw it all. He was devastated too. Like, there’s campers, big campers with wheels just showing out in the lake. There’s trucks turned over and all crumpled in the lake. Hydro poles, we lost a complete hydro line, 7 poles. The polls they couldn’t find when they came to fix and the wire isn’t even there. It had to be bad to take that.”

Asham hopes that the Canadian military will come and help with the efforts to clear up the area torn up by the massive tornado.

“A lot of metal buildings that were just, the metal is just twisted, the wind took it and laying so far from where the building. We had two buildings, we don’t even know where they went. The man that lost his life, his building, no one knows where that ended up. And then the farmer along the beach, there was fourteen of them in the basement and none of them got hurt. But no one knows where that building’s gone.” He continues, “Oh, and then there was a cabin. No one knows where that is!”

The lack of cell service was a major problem for Asham, saying many people did not receive any alert that a tornado was on its way.

Environment and Climate Change Canada upgraded the tornado to the rating E-F-4 based on the damage that was observed by its team of investigators.

The rating means winds speeds in the twister on Friday are believed to have reached over 270 kilometres per hour.