People are reeling as they try to pick up the pieces after tornadoes pounded eastern Manitoba on the weekend, killing a woman, injuring at least 20 others and wrecking homes and farms.

The storm on Aug. 5 spawned at least three twisters, including one that took the life of a 64-year-old Winnipeg woman in the resort community of Gull Lake, northeast of the city.

Police said on Monday that Elfreda Visser was walking with her husband when the tornado hit, picking her up and hurling her through the air. She died from her injuries while her husband is reported to be in stable condition in the hospital.

Police have let people back into the area to collect personal belongings and survey damage to their properties. A massive cleanup is underway.

"We're totally devastated, because we can't find nothing.… Everything's gone … blown away," said Larry Zakaluk, whose home was ruined by the tornado as it passed through the Gull Lake Campground.

"It's just history. I don't even want to talk about it."

The storm wrecked farms and cottages across a wide swath of eastern Manitoba, injuring at least 20 people in the Lac du Bonnet and Pointe du Bois areas.

'In Manitoba, we know we get tornadoes … but we've never had one like this.'-Steve Strang, the reeve of the Rural Municipality of St. Clements

"It's a hard day. How do you ever prepare for something like this?" asked Steve Strang, the reeve of the Rural Municipality of St. Clements, whose area bore the brunt of the tornado.

"In Manitoba, we know we get tornadoes.… We get so many a year, but we've never had one like this. I think this has been the first death we've seen from a tornado since 1977, so this is unbelievable.

Storm produced winds of up to 252 km/h

Environment Canada is studying the storm, which actually produced at least three tornadoes.

Officials said the biggest was an F-2 storm on the Fujita Tornado scale, with winds between 181-252 kilometres an hour when it touched down in Lac du Bonnet.

The damage track was up to 200 metres wide.

"It spawned the tornado that touched down at Patricia Beach.  And this tornado moved eastward for about 15 kilometres to around Stead. Then it lifted up," said Anne-Marie Palfreeman, a meteorologist for Environment Canada.

"And as the cell progressed eastward, the tornado touched down somewhere west of Highway 11 near McArthur Falls.  And that tracked eastward, across Lac du Bonnet.  Then touched down near Bird's River and moved eastward."

Palfreeman said studying the storm would help Environment Canada improve future forecasts.