Sask.'s recent tornadoes spark difficult memories for Regina woman whose car was flipped by storm in 1989
Betty Urschel was caught in tornado near Cut Knife decades ago
Saskatchewan has had nine confirmed tornados this year, including three just last week.
The storms have brought up difficult memories for one Regina woman.
The very mention of the word "tornado" will cause panic for some. For Betty Urschel, it is a reminder of how she, her husband and her mother-in-law were inside a car that was caught up in a tornado's destructive path on June 30, 1989.
"Every time there's a tornado warning, you relive it," said Urschel.
The trio were heading to Edmonton from Regina, but their journey came to a rather abrupt stop near Cut Knife, Sask., about 175 kilometres northwest of Saskatoon.
Urschel said they knew they were heading into a storm at the time.
"But it was just like a big wall of black that we were heading into. There was no sign of a funnel cloud that we could see. And then the winds got so bad, and then the dirt was starting to blow up onto our windshield."
They pulled the car over to the side of the road. But it wasn't long before the car started to roll.
WATCH | Sask. tornadoes are a scary reminder of 1989 storm for one Regina woman:
"Then [the tornado] just literally picked us up and dropped us on the other side of the fence into the field," Urschel said.
The car landed on its roof, with all three passengers hanging upside down.
"It's terrifying. When we first started to roll, as my window broke, I could feel the wet grass on my arm ... there's just a million things that go through your mind. You don't know if you're going to die or what's going to happen," she said.
"It's only a matter of a few minutes and it's all over. But it seems like an eternity when you're going through it."
Thankfully, the car didn't move again.
"At one point we thought, OK, it was safe to crawl out. But we could only crawl out the passenger side of the vehicle."
When they stood up, they began to get pelted on the side of their heads with rain and hail, as the tornado continued past. The trio crouched beside the car until the storm passed them by.
"Then the sun came out and the winds died down."
Army officers came to help the family, who had lost their suitcases when the tornado popped open their car trunk. It wasn't until one month later that they got their suitcases back, after a farmer found them while working in his field.
Urschel said she sustained a "big goose egg" on her head, and her mother-in-law dislocated her thumb.
When it was time to head home in a rented vehicle, Urschel said she had nightmares when she dosed off.
"I would suddenly see dirt coming up on the windshield and kind of jolt myself awake," she said. "I think we were all in shock and, you know, just praying for a safe ride home."
Urschel said that terrifying tornado incident haunted her for a long time.
"In years to follow, when we were out, there was a couple of times that we were caught in our vehicles during a storm ... it did cause me a panic attack or two."
She said that over time, she learned to work through the panic and "live your life."
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With files from The Morning Edition