Last night’s severe thunderstorms are believed to have produced a tornado that damaged property near Chestermere.

According to Danny Canning from A & A Towing, the storm damaged his home, which is located between Chestermere and Langdon, just west of Strathmore.

“As soon as we got the warning on our phones, I'm gonna say about 10 minutes later, it came in and we ran for the basement,” he said.

tornado submiited

“We got the warning and we went outside to see if we could see anything. The clouds were dark and the wind was blowing,” he said.

Canning initially thought things were ok, but all of a sudden the downpour came.

“It just started hailing all crazy and we just ran downstairs,” he said.

While Canning has seen his fair share of storms, the damage of last night was a first for him.

“Last year when we moved in, we did get a pretty bad hail storm, but I mean nothing to the extent where it knocked down buildings and ripped these trees apart like this.”

He explained that his property sustained damage to the house, a Quonset shed, and a tow truck. The cab of the truck was damaged  a tree falling on it as well.

The Quonset shed was knocked down and blown apart by the storm.

"The hail was just so intense and the winds were crazy," he said, The family went inside during the storm so they didn't see the tornado touchdown, but there was significant damage done.

He explained that the next step will be to call the insurance company and get some bins on the property and begin the clean-up.  He said all in all he thinks the storm lasted about 10 minutes. 

“it came in fast, it left fast,  the sun started shining right after,” he said.  

  Canning said the children dealt with the storm fairly well.

"The kids were really good they went downstairs, we all went in the stairwell and they were more curious of what was going on," he said.

Last night a tornado watch and severe thunderstorm warning was issued for Strathmore and parts of Wheatland and Rocky View County by Environment and Climate Change Canada. Residents were asked to take cover during the potentially life-threatening situation.

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