Manitoba farmer trying to stay positive following tornado

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This article was published 11/08/2020 (1500 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BRANDON — Giovanni Colangelo is trying to stay positive after a massive tornado cut through his farm property last week.

The 60-year-old said while he is over the initial shock of seeing grain bins torn to shreds by winds that reached up to 190 kilometres per hour, he has a lot of work to do for the upcoming harvest.

“I lost about 110,000 bushels worth of storage space,” he said Tuesday. “One bushel, on average, costs between three to five dollars. So you do the math.”

The tornado touched down near his property approximately 16 kilometres south of Virden around 8 p.m. Friday.

While the farmer was a safe distance away, the storm uprooted trees, battered storage bins and filled his yard and surrounding wheat fields with debris.

“I didn’t get any sleep that night,” Colangelo said. “At two o’clock, I couldn’t stay in bed anymore.”

As the day went on, Colangelo discovered he didn’t have to tackle the cleanup alone. Not only did neighbours drop by to lend some moral support, but approximately 50 members of a Mennonite church group from nearby Cromer showed up with some heavy machinery to help clear away wreckage.

“By seven o’clock at night, we had most of the yard cleaned, and we were walking through the field and picked up all the pieces,” he said. “We walked for about two miles and got five to six piles of debris. It was a gigantic job.”

However, Colangelo doesn’t hold any illusions about the struggle ahead. He said he doesn’t know if he’ll be able to financially recover from the severe weather incident, especially given his age.

“I’m going to need to have a miracle,” he said. “But then again, I do have a chance to do it.”

Colangelo has been farming the stretch of land near the community of Scarth for 40 years, having immigrated to Manitoba from his native Italy with several other members of his family.

Even though Colangelo said the tornado blew away 25 years’ worth of progress, he’s still trying to keep things in perspective.

A young couple from Melita, Shayna Barnesky and Carter Tilbury, both 18, were killed in the tornado.

“I’m still here, still able to work,” Colangelo said. “Bins can be rebuilt. Life cannot.”

— Brandon Sun