Home  |  Web Resources  |  Free Advertising

Change Your Life!

Deadly touchdown of a tornado

News
Sports
Chat
Travel
Dhaka Today
Yellow Pages
Higher Education
Ask a Doctor
Weather
Currency Rate
Horoscope
E-Cards
B2K Poll
Comment on the Site
B2K Club

An emergency worker transports four-year-old Cody Lewis from a tornado-ravaged campground at Pine Lake, Canada Friday, July 14, 2000 after a tornado touched down killing seven and injuring 38. Scores of injured were transported to hospitals in Calgary, Edmonton, Red Deer and nearby Three Hills. AP Photo/Red Deer Advocate,Craig Douce)

July 16, 2000 

PINE LAKE, Alberta (AP) - A tornado touched down at a crowded campground in the western Canadian province of Alberta, tossing trailers into a lake and killing at least seven people with 79 others injured, a local official said.

The storm that hit early Friday evening at the Green Acres campground beside Pine Lake caused "extensive damage," flipping trailers upside down and sending an unknown number into the water, said Cpl. Patrick Webb of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Jim Squire, spokesman for Red Deer County, confirmed the numbers of those dead and injured.

Lighting and darkness prevented a search of the trailers in the water until daybreak, Webb said. The campground is located near Red Deer, about 150 kilometers (90 miles) north of Calgary.

"We're going to be looking through the wreckage (on land), trying to find more people," Webb said. "We think we've got the majority of injured already. Tomorrow we might find more (in the water)."

Some victims were evacuated by helicopter to hospitals in Red Deer, Edmonton and Calgary, while the less seriously injured received treatment at the scene, Webb said.

	Emergency personel help injured vacationers from a tornado-ravaged campground in Pine Lake, Alberta, Canada Friday, July 14, 2000. Several campers were killed and scores transported to area hospitals by ground and air.(AP Photo/Red Deer Advocate,Craig Douce)

The storm that included hail and wind lasted about 20 minutes, leaving dazed survivors wandering about looking for loved ones, witnesses said.

"There were hundreds of people walking around with scrapes, bruises, people being carried out on stretchers," said Andrew Schultz, a weather reporter for a Red Deer television station.

After hitting the campground, the tornado moved across the lake and touched down again in a rural subdivision on the other side. Of the 30 homes in the area, about a dozen were destroyed or severely damaged.

The campground, graf 9 pvs