Trees uprooted, buildings smashed and woodlands flattened, but there were no injuries as a tornado ripped through western New Brunswick on Sunday night.

'Things started flying out the window.'-Geneva Curdo

Heavy wind, rain and hail pounded the province, stretching from Perth Andover to about 100 kilometres to the southeast.

The tornado hit the small community of Glassville, about 40 kilometres south of Perth Andover. Environment Canada is calling the storm an F1 tornado, with winds of at least 116 kilometres an hour.

Glassville resident Geneva Curdo was watching television when she noticed the wind shaking her windows and doors. Although it was only 7 p.m. local time, the sky grew dark.

She rushed upstairs to close some windows.

"And the window went out, like, as I was taking it down. It just literally blew out of my hand," Curdo told CBC News.

"Things started flying out the window and it picked me up."

Curdo said she relied on what she learned from 16 years of living in California. She treated it like an earthquake, crouched down and hung on.

Outside her home, mature trees were bent to the ground or split open. Her neighbour, Bill Buxton, described the damage.

"There's houses gone, there's camps gone, there's potato houses gone and a lot of woodland gone too.

"All down, just as though you went over it with a roller, rolled her flat."

Glassville fire Chief Dale McIntosh said the absence of injuries is probably because so many people were away for the long Canada Day weekend.