By Andrew de Souza

Storm leaves family with a lasting memory

Jul 19, 2011 | 6:15 AM

Bonita Matushewski and her husband Brett Bonin planned a getaway with family at Waskesiu National Park.

Her family came from as far as British Columbia and Ontario to spend a week with each other.

On Monday evening, Environment Canada issued a tornado warning for the area. At around 7:30 p.m., there were no tornadoes in the park, but there was hail—a lot of it.

Bonita and her family were huddled in a mosquito tent, warming by a fire an escaping insect bites when it started coming down.

“We started to hear a couple of pings just coming off the poles and we were wondering what the heck that was,” said Bonita.

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“Then all of a sudden out of the blue it just started to hail a ton.”

Exactly how much fell has not yet been determined, but witnesses at the park say the hail storm lasted for around fifteen minutes, before a deluge of rain.

“My biggest worry was whether or not the windows would break because all our vents were getting busted because the hail was hitting our trailer so hard. It was pretty scary.”

The family gathered in their camper as the hail pounded down, breaking the plastic vent guards and the screen below it.

“My heroic brother put on a bike helmet, climbed on top and put a plastic bag over the hole to stop the water from coming in,” she said.

Afterwards, rain came down in sheets causing what Brett described as a small flash flood. Inches of water remained on the street for hours afterwards.

They went to the store to get as much duct tape as possible in order to do some make shift repairs. At that point they learned one of their cars had lost a windshield to the storm.

While there was some damage, Bonita said in the end it meant a lot to have the family together in such unique circumstances.

“This was supposed to be a family vacation and it’s one that we probably won’t forget now,” she said.

Another storm blew through the area shortly after 11 p.m.

adesouza@panow.com