Anniversary of fatal tornado met with ongoing grief

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This article was published 08/08/2023 (1078 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On the third anniversary of his son’s death in a tornado that ripped through part of southwestern Manitoba, Kerry Tilbury spent four hours at a rural monument in his memory near Scarth.

It is a pilgrimage he makes often.

“The farmers around that surrounding area made a nice memorial in the ditch off the side of the highway,” Tilbury said Tuesday. “I do go up to that memorial location six, seven times a month, sometimes more.”

On Aug. 7, 2020, Carter Tilbury and Shayna Barnesky, both 18, were driving along Highway 83 in the Rural Municipality of Pipestone, less than 20 kilometres south of Virden, when a tornado swept up their pickup truck. The pair, both from nearby Melita, were later pronounced dead at the scene.

The 2020 tornado was initially classified as EF-2 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, based on wind speeds and damage caused. It was later given an EF-3 rating, with winds blowing up to 260 km/h.

Justin Shelley, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, said there have been nine confirmed or probable tornadoes in Manitoba this year — the highest number since 2016.

There were six such tornadoes last year, four in 2021, and seven in 2020. None have carried a rating of EF-3 or higher since the fatal storm near Scarth, Shelley said.

(This year, three tornadoes near William Lake Provincial Park, Killarney and Bagot on June 20 were given an EF-1 rating. The others were rated zero.)

While many factors can impact the frequency and intensity of tornadoes Manitoba experiences in a given year, Shelley said drier conditions generally produces receives fewer tornadoes. Higher precipitation and moisture are conducive to more.

Rob Gilliland, a Scarth resident who helped create the memorial for the two teens, was sitting with his family around the TV when tornado alerts were issued Aug. 7, 2020.

“You see them between five and 10 times every summer, so we didn’t really pay attention to it. The sky looked blue and clear,” Gilliland said this week. “A couple of minutes later, the power went out with a loud bang. My wife got up and happened to look out to the kitchen window and the tornado was less than a mile away.”

The Gilliland family huddled in the basement until the storm ultimately travelled north of the community.

After later hearing about Tilbury and Barnesky’s deaths, the Gillilands rounded up support from community members. They donated materials to help build the memorial, composed of a slab of oak held up by steel poles.

“It’s a Prairie thing. People pitch in and do stuff for people in need,” he said.

Tilbury and Barnesky met in elementary school but had only began dating in high school. She had graduated just months before the pair were killed.

“She was working on deciding what schooling she wanted to do,” her mother, Buffy, wrote in a Facebook post. “Friday night before they left she sent me an ACC link to see if I thought that would be a good choice for her.

“It was bookkeeping, and she would have been amazing at it. She had her whole life ahead of her to do amazing things.”

Barnesky’s Facebook account remains stuck in a time of grad dresses and new beginnings. One of her final posts is a photo of her and her boyfriend in formal wear, captioned “Always smiling with you.”

Tilbury described his son as a somewhat quiet but generally outgoing person. Before his tragic death, his career in the agricultural equipment sector was just taking off.

“He started a job at Enns Brothers, the John Deere implement dealership in town after he graduated,” Tilbury said. “He was really doing good down there.”

In a Facebook photo posted Monday, Tilbury poses with a large, monochrome painting of the young couple he had commissioned. It hangs by the entrance of his home, but it’s light enough to move around the house.

“It’s a beautiful thing. I can move it outside if I want it outside with me.”

cierra.bettens@freepress.mb.ca