CARSTAIRS — A family living on a rural property north of Carstairs saw the July 1 tornado coming.
It looked like it was headed their way, so Michelle Samson and her children Alexander and Sophie dashed down to the basement. A neighbour joined them because she didn’t have access to a basement.
Husband Alain stayed outside to keep an eye on its path.
“I was ready to run into the basement,” he admitted.
As the tornado came by, it was an eerie situation, Alain indicated.
"(There was) no noise, just wind. And it got very dark. As it was picking up stuff it was getting bigger and bigger and very dark," he said. “I could see pieces of stuff, I don’t know what.”
Alain and Michelle said they’d never experienced anything like this.
“This is the first time. We’re still a little under shock,” he said. “You see a funnel from afar, but nothing this big and this threatening.”
“It felt like it was coming towards us really and then it (veered off),” Michelle said.
They said the tornado seemed to be on the ground moving across the land for about five to 10 minutes.
“I could hear my heart beat,” Alain said.
The Samsons were very lucky.
The only damage they appeared to receive was that the wind picked up their trampoline, hurling it from the back yard.
But they really feel for the absolute destruction their neighbours to the north suffered.
Michelle said one farmyard, including a house and barn, “is completely wiped out.”
Michelle said that whole thing is something none of them want to ever experience again.
This story is the result of an interview by Australian senior journalist Sally Gall. She and photojournalist Petteri Kokkinen were in Olds for a congress of international agricultural journalists. When they heard about the tornado, they teamed up with Doug Collie of the Albertan to head to the area and report on it.
