It’s been more than a decade since the community of Elie was devastated by a tornado.
On June 22, 2007, an F5 tornado leveled several homes.
Les Kauppila is a long time resident of Elie. He remembers standing on his porch watching the twister move closer and closer.
"When I saw it I thought it was going to go past us, and I noticed maybe not, so I headed for the basement, and everything disappeared after that,” said Kauppila.
Soon Manitobans will have a new means of being alerted to natural disasters, extreme weather, and other life-threatening emergencies.
As of Friday, anyone who uses a compatible LTE device will receive a text message warning on their smartphones.
"The alert will begin with a district sound and vibration, then an emergency alert banner will display on the wireless device and be followed by a message,” said Minister of Infrastructure Ron Schuler.
Schuler says Canada's service providers, such as Bell MTS, Rogers, and Telus, will have the capacity to send emergency text messages to all of their users.
As for Les Kauppila, he says back in 2007 he didn’t hear a warning on TV or radio. Instead, he was notified by a phone call from his daughter the night the tornado ripped through Elie. He wishes he had more time to react.
"This time I would try to get away, but like I say, if you don't know where it's coming from which directions it's coming from you might be driving into it,” said Kauppila.
The Alert Ready system alerts begin with a distinct sound and vibration, followed by an emergency alert banner and then the message.
A test message is scheduled to be sent to wireless devices in Manitoba on May 9, 2018 at 1:55 p.m.
With files from The Canadian Press
