A woman was killed and three other people were injured on Saturday when a tornado struck a Manitoba campground.

The twister at Gull Lake, 80 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg, wrecked boats, uprooted trees and destroyed or severely damaged nearly all of the 23 trailers and cabins in the area, witnesses said.

Police survey the damage at a campground near the village of Gull Lake.
(John Woods/Canadian Press-Winnipeg Free Press)

RCMP Sgt. Steve Saunders said the woman, 64, and her husband got caught in the tornado while walking outside at the private campground.

The woman's husband was one of the three injured taken to a Winnipeg hospital. He suffered serious injuries to his legs, witnesses said.

Amy West, who runs the Stead Steakhouse just a few kilometres from the campground, offered several people shelter overnight. She spotted three funnel clouds that joined to become a tornado.

"We were out in the middle of the field checking on our horses, and then the three vortexes joined and the funnel just came down. By the time I ran to the house for my camera it was already hailing, and it seemed to be gone."

Camper flipped over three times

Ken Leblanc and his family had huddled in the middle of their cottage as the storm raged like a train around them.

"And my daughter-in-law was in the camper out the back and it flipped over three times," he told CBC News. "She's fine, a couple of bruises."

Environment Canada meteorologist Dan Fulton said the storm began east of Lake Manitoba in mid-afternoon, bringing hailstones as large as golf balls to the area.

"For sure it was [a tornado]," Fulton said. "They saw a funnel and they saw it come down, so it is a tornado."

The tornado touched down at Patricia Beach at 5:19 p.m. local time before moving through Gull Lake.

Storm damage was also reported in the nearby communities of Lac du Bonnet, Pointe du Bois, Beaconia and Grand Marais.

 

With files from the Canadian Press