Victims of southwestern Manitoba tornado identified - CTV News

In a small Manitoba town where everyone knows everyone, Shayna Barnesky and Carter Tilbury had been a part of each other’s lives since elementary school.

They were killed while driving through the Rural Municipality of Pipestone after a sudden tornado ripped through the area, throwing them from their vehicle — and throwing their hometown of Melita into mourning.

“They were a great couple of kids,” Melita Mayor Bill Holden told CTV News.

Melita has a population of just a little over a thousand, and is located only 35 kilometres from the U.S

“It’s a bit of a cloudy day, and people are just feeling […] sad and sombre at what happened.”

No one knows if the couple saw the tornado, which witnesses describe as explosive, when it appeared suddenly from a small, intense thunderstorm Friday night

The teens were discovered in a field, pulled from the vehicle by the force of the tornado

With wind speeds of up to 190 kilometres per hour, the EF-2 tornado cut a narrow, but devastating, path of destruction

Apart from throwing the two vehicles, it hit a farm, smashing more than a dozen grain bins

“It’s just devastating

It just doesn’t even look like the same place anymore,” said Shirley Rudneski, a friend of the man whose farmland was destroyed

The damage underscores how a tornado can change everything in an instant, cutting down trees that spent years growing -- and cutting short human lives

Shayna Barnesky and Carter Tilbury are seen in this image