A menacing tornado ripped through Alberta this past Friday and prompted many communities to enact serious safety measures. The twister itself landed in the western province about 80 kilometers outside of Calgary in a small town called Three Hills. Environment Canada had alerted everyone of the natural hazard, which according to weather specialists, was producing wind speeds of about 90 kilometers an hour and traveling at a rapid 50 kilometers on the ground.
It was an ominous sight to behold and had legitimate potential to cause some serious damage. Thankfully, there were no major injuries reported and by the end of it all, just some simple property damage was apparent. Despite the lack of destruction, it's safe to say that the whole thing was pretty damn scary. If you don't believe us, check out some of the crazy footage that ended up on social media.
Looks pretty intimidating, don't you think? Well, just as everyone in Three Hills was running for cover, one determined man casually mowed his lawn in the face of danger. Yup, you read that right! While the town essentially went into lockdown and tried to avoid getting sucked up into a twister, Theunis Wessels gave the tornado his middle finger and finished his weekly chores. Wessels' wife, Cecilia, snapped a picture of the thrill seeker and posted it to Facebook where it has since gone viral.
Speaking with CBC news this past weekend, Cecilia said the photo op was a bit of a mistake. "I literally took the picture to show my mum and dad in South Africa, 'Look there's a tornado,' and now everyone is like, 'Why is your husband mowing the lawn?"' Cecilia Wessels told reporters.
Her husband explained that the tornado was actually a bit further than the photo suggests and that he felt comfortable monitoring it while he mowed his grass. "It looks much closer if you look in the photo, but it was really far away. Well, not really far, far away, but it was far away from us."
The epic picture of Theunis has been picked up across the country, and has turned the local badass into a bit of a online sensation. More importantly, however, is that lawn was properly cut, as Wessels told CTV "it looked nice". Since nobody was harmed in the process, we suppose that's really the most important aspect of the story.
