Tornado on Lac Seul

[chaffmj]

I was up near here the week before. Very sad news.

EAR FALLS, Ont. - Two American men were killed and another was missing after a tornado uprooted two cabins and dropped the buildings into a northwestern Ontario lake.

The tornado touched down Thursday at the Fisherman's Cove Resort on Lac Seul, about 15 kilometres south of Ear Falls, Ont., at about 8:30 p.m. local time.

Tourists and resort operators worked at cleaning up the debris Friday that had scattered through the picturesque locale popular for hunting and fishing.

Bernie Jackson, 65, and Stan Hollis, 79, both of Oklahoma were killed, according to the Tulsa World newspaper. Dennis Kinkaid, 66, also from Oklahoma, was still missing Friday said his wife, Dayna.

"Here we are in tornado alley and you go to Canada and have this freakish thing happen," she told the paper.

All three men were inside the cabin when it was ripped from the ground, said Geoff Coulson, a meteorologist with Environment Canada.

Five other people inside a second cabin received minor injuries, Coulson said.

The two bodies were found in the water several metres offshore, police said.

Kyle Kurscheidt, who on vacation at the resort from Wisconsin, was sporting a bloody gash around his left eye Friday after becoming one of those injured in the second cabin.

Officers spent Friday scouring the area around Fisherman's Cove for the missing man.

The area around the resort was cordoned off Friday for the search, said Const. Beth Chevalier.

"No one's being allowed entry to Fisherman's Cove at this time," she said.

The national weather office confirmed the tornado touched down after dispatching a staff member to the area to survey the damage.

The tornado, ranked as an F2, had wind speeds between 180 and 240 kilometres per hour, Environment Canada said.

"As we approach winds of around 200 kilometres an hour or stronger, these are definitely deadly force winds and can do significant damage to structures," Coulson said.

Ear Falls is about two hours north of Dryden, Ont.

[Fish Head]

I was at Lac Seul in Chamberlain Narrows at the time. We heard about it the next morning.