Strong winds wreaked havoc across southeastern Alberta on Monday, leaving thousands of Medicine Hat residents without power.
About 5,600 homes in Medicine Hat were without power as of 4 p.m. MT, according to Merrick Brown, director of emergency management for the city of Medicine Hat. Power has been restored to about 1,700 homes in northeast Crescent Heights, according to the city’s website.
In a Facebook post, the city said infrastructure was damaged in several places.
“We have quite extensive damage to our power distribution transmission system. The current goals right now are obviously safety, looking at road closures, gathering information about the situation and then we’ll move on to repairing and restoring those,” Brown said.
A crazy storm just hit pic.twitter.com/hLLkIWAOtS
—@joeyj992
Earlier Monday, Environment Canada warned that southeast Alberta could experience strong winds and large hail this afternoon.
A tornado warning was also issued near Medicine Hat, Alta., as Alberta’s Emergency Warning System says a twister touched down around 1:50 p.m. Monday.
The weather event was later described as a “storm with dangerous and destructive winds” that blew up near Interstate 523 and Interstate 1, causing damage to homes and vehicles.
Dark storm clouds descended over Medicine Hat, Alta., amid a severe thunderstorm. (Submitted by Travis Meyer)
He also noted that there is a detour on Township Road 122, east to Range Road 71 and south to Highway 3.
Strong winds left thousands of Medicine Hat residents without power, damaged infrastructure and downed trees Monday. (Submitted by Dana Marshall)
Terry Lang, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, said there was no confirmation of a tornado. There is damage from high winds, Lang said.
At about 4:30 p.m., Alberta’s emergency warning website said there was no power in the town of Redcliffe, which is northwest of Medicine Hat. There was no estimated repair time.
Redcliff RCMP said there were no reports of injuries or missing people in Cypress County.
“I was freaking out”
Cypress County resident Riza Hertz said the storm caused extensive damage to her property.
“I went out on our deck and as soon as I got out, a bunch of rain just came down with the wind. It all happened in a second,” Hertz said.
“Then I went inside and our barbecue also flew off the deck and took some of the siding off of it.”
Hertz said she and her family were not injured and are safe indoors. But the whole thing was scary.
“I was freaking out. The house was shaking. So I wasn’t sure what was going to happen. Some of the windows in the house were open so the doors were slamming.’
Bad weather in Cypress County Monday afternoon caused property damage to resident Riesa Hertz, blowing her barbecue and patio furniture off her deck. (Submitted by Riesa Hertz)
Tanya Croft, corporate communications manager at Fortis Alberta, said the power provider has sent crews to assess the damage in the areas it serves around Medicine Hat.
Around 5:30 p.m., Fortis confirmed there were 15 to 20 damaged poles that required repair. The damage is in a concentrated area, Croft said in an email to CBC News.
“We were able to compartmentalize the outage using our distributed automation system … allowing us to isolate the failure and restore the majority of customers.”
About 118 customers were still without power in the areas it serves as of 5:30 p.m., according to Fortis.
Echo Dale Regional Park suffered “significant damage” and is now closed to the public, according to a Facebook post by the City of Medicine Hat.
“Cleanup of tree limbs and debris in our parks is expected to begin Wednesday after a full assessment is completed,” the post said.
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