By Joel van der Veen

DAVIDSON — It took less than two minutes to destroy more than a century’s worth of work.

That was Sydney Willner’s observation as she surveyed the damage to her parents’ farmyard northwest of Davidson on Wednesday morning.

The Willners’ yard was flattened by a twister that struck sometime after 8 p.m. on Tuesday, cutting a diagonal path through their yard.

The storm uprooted trees, tossed around granaries and knocked down most of their buildings. Even so, their house was spared, suffering comparatively minor damage, and neither the family nor their animals were injured.

Laura Willner was counting her blessings Wednesday morning as she, her family and their friends continued the task of clearing the damage.

“We’re just very, very grateful for everybody’s help,” she said, adding that the first volunteers showed up within an hour of the tornado passing through.

Gord and Laura Willner and their daughter Sydney were home on Tuesday night when the storm hit.

Gord and Sydney were on the porch watching the hail storm in progress when they spotted a funnel cloud taking shape.

“It made a funnel right over the yard,” said Gord, and at that point the three of them headed for the basement.

Sydney said Wednesday that being hit by a tornado was her greatest fear, but added that she wasn’t aware of any loud noise as it passed over: “I had the adrenalin going.”

Gord said the family was only downstairs for a couple of minutes, after which they emerged to find their yard in ruins.

“Every building in the yard was gone, except the house,” said Laura.

For the full story and more photos, please see the July 25 edition of The Davidson Leader, or call 306-567-2047 to subscribe today.