Gusting winds forced a wall of ice off a lake and sent it crashing into homes in the western town of Ochre Beach, Manitoba.
Myles Haverluck was outside barbecuing when he noticed something was wrong. He said he could hear a big roar as he saw the wave of ice coming.
“By the time we went around the front the cabin, next door was moving 10 feet off its foundation,” he told the public broadcaster, CBC.
“Then we heard these cracks, and we went inside the house and the ice had come through the windows of the kitchen and living room” Haverluck continued.
Andrew Barnet was also working outside when the wind storm came towards the lakeshore homes.
“Looked out and the ice started coming out over the house and the ice started shifting,” Barnet told CBC News.
“I looked across the deck and everything just kept coming,” he continued. “It felt like it was hailing because the wind was throwing the ice everywhere. It was kind of nuts.”
Barnet said he grabbed his keys and ran because he was worried the road would be blocked.
An event like this is a highly unusual in Canada. Melting ice floating down rivers can clog them and cause flooding. But in this case winds gusting at 80 km/hr pushed the ice into 27 homes. 13 were destroyed and 14 were severely damaged.
No one was hurt.
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