Tornado Hits Canadian Campsite; 9 Killed, 130 Hurt

PINE LAKE, Canada —  A tornado that tossed trailers into a lake while devastating a crowded Alberta campsite killed nine people, landed more than 130 in hospitals and forced 400 to spend the night in temporary shelters, Canadian police said Saturday.

Injured campers, some with broken bones, wandered in shock while others frantically searched for loved ones missing after the twister left the Green Acres campground by Pine Lake, about 90 miles north of Calgary.

“It’s like ground zero,” Royal Canadian Mounted Police Constable Dan Doyle said. “It’s as though a steamroller had actually gone through it and flattened it out.”

Divers searched submerged trailers for more victims Saturday, and police asked the military for help in clearing wreckage strewn across the hillside campsite.

Authorities were trying to determine if anyone else staying at the campsite was missing, a task made difficult by the large numbers of injured and displaced transported to nearby Red Deer and as far as Calgary and Edmonton.

The tornado touched down about 6:30 p.m. Friday and lasted about 20 minutes.

Oliver Mahoney, 32, said the twister picked up his trailer on the shores of the lake and flipped it like a matchbox, while he and eight relatives, including his four young children desperately hung on inside.

“I told everybody to try to embrace the walls,” he said. “They were screaming and yelling. It was terrible. It seemed like a bad dream. We had to climb to the top to try to get out.”