F3 tornado rips through Alberta camping area killing 11 people

July 14th, 2000

(this tornado ranks 4th in Canada's all time worst tornados)

Overview Time approx 7PM, July 14th, 2000 Location Green Acres trailer park, Pine Lake, Alberta Wind speeds about 300km/hr Width of funnel at ground 1.5 km (about 1 mile) at max Time on ground 20 to 30 minutes Fatalities 11 killed, 132 hospitalized, hundreds more injured

Environment Canada comments

Alberta tornados General info

Weather Network

Around 7PM a super-cell storm spawned a tornado rated F3 which traveled across a lake and into a camping area filled with trailers, killing 10 people and injuring hundreds. The tornado damage path was 20 km long and 1 km wide at its greatest intensity. It was on the ground for half an hour. Several hundred trailers had been flipped upside down at the Green Acres campground, and a stream of tow trucks, ambulances, rescue divers and other emergency services descended on the site, about 90 miles north of Calgary. The storm hit the southwest corner of Pine Lake at the campground, witnesses said, and lasted about 20 minutes, bringing hail and wind before petering out in the forest nearby.

Like "a Bomb"

Newspaper photographer Craig Douce said the campsite looked like "a bomb went off" when he arrived 30 minutes after the storm. "There were people partially trapped within their mangled motor homes," he said, describing how he saw a man watching as his wife was cut out of their trailer with a chain saw.

Felicia Cacace told how her trailer suddenly lurched about with her inside. "I was flying up and down," she said. "I held onto the television, and then we crashed to the ground."

Another man who was waiting to be evacuated for treatment of a deep gouge in his left cheek said his trailer was hurled through the air. "When we landed, I was watching the ground come up. Everything went up and it all came straight down," he said.

Parts of trailers, wood and other debris were floating in the lake, said Pat Yakes, who was visiting a cabin on the far side of the lake.

The weather system that created the tornado could be seen from Calgary, said Blair Morrow of Environment Canada, a government agency. A tornado warning had been issued for the area about the same time the funnel cloud touched down, he said.

Photos by Jim Knudson

Pictures from The Weather Network

Chronology by Environment Canada

ABC News article no longer available

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