What was supposed to be a day in the sun turned into an evening inside a church basement for some campers Saturday in St.Malo.

Tracey Kuzenko is District Supervisor for Steinbach with Manitoba Conservation. She says 167 campers ended up going to a nearby church after tornado warnings circulated around the park.

Kuzenko says park staff get their information from Environment Canada. "We check it regularly," she says. It started as a Severe Thunderstorm Watch on Saturday, notes Kuzenko. It was then upgraded to a Tornado Watch and then Tornado Warning.

"At the point of a Tornado Watch we'll notify campers in St.Malo that that is something that has been identified through Environment Canada for their information in case they don't have access or haven't checked the weather or anything like that," notes Kuzenko.

Once it becomes a Tornado Warning, she says they have access to the local Roman Catholic Church in St.Malo. "We advised people that if they're interested in taking that option they can go to the Roman Catholic Church basement and one of our staff is there to sign them in when they come in."

Kuzenko says this is completely voluntary. "No one's evacuated or advised that it's mandatory to partake in that." In fact, she says in event of a Tornado Warning, there is never a case where a mandatory evacuation would occur.

Campers remained in the church basement more than one hour, suggests Kuzenko. "There wasn't any panic that I'm aware of. From what I was told, the campers felt that the information was very well received." Kuzenko says there were no tornadoes that touched down in the park. And to the best of her knowledge no one spotted any funnel clouds.