Tornado touches down near Foremost
While Calgarians cleaned up Thursday following two consecutive days of destructive summer storms, a tornado touched down about 300 kilometres away in southeastern Alberta.
The tornado hit near Foremost around noon Thursday, after two days of wind, hail and rain rocked Calgary. The storms knocked out power, toppled trees, submerged vehicles, destroyed gardens and cars with golf- ball sized hail, and even tore the roof off a Maryland Heights housing complex.
“Meteorologically, there’s nothing noteworthy ( about the storms), but the impacts are extremely noteworthy because of where they happened,” said Dan Kulak, an Environment Canada meteorologist.
“The storms developed in the same areas, which just happens to be a densely populated urban municipality.”
Calgary was spared a third day of intense weather on Thursday, but much of southern Alberta was under a severe thunderstorm watch throughout the afternoon.
Environment Canada said no damage was reported after the tornado touched down close to Foremost, a village southeast of Lethbridge.
Steven Hougen and his brother were harvesting at their family farm just before the tornado struck.
“We saw it coming, parked our combines and got out as quick as we could,” Hougen said.
The men jumped in their truck and Hougen drove away from the twister as his brother shot video.
“It was a little scary for sure,” Hougen said. “I was a little nervous.”
Meanwhile, as Calgarians filed insurance claims for hail- damaged vehicles and homes, city crews and kind Samaritans set to work cleaning up the destruction.
Seven clients staying at the Drop- In Centre headed to the nearby river pathways to pitch in with the cleanup. The volunteer crew filled more than a dozen plastic bags with tree debris.
“There was a lot of tree branches that had fallen because of the storms,” said Vanessa Keller, a Drop- In Centre client, who has lived at the building for nine months.
“I was surprised. I took one look at the ground and I was like, ‘ oh wow.’”
Staff from the city continued to clear storm drains of debris on Thursday, said Chris Huston, manager of field services at the City of Calgary, as crews from Enmax, the parks department and the roads department also began cleaning up from the storms.
“We’re all working together out there to do our part, clean it up, and prepare for the next storm,” he said.
Huston said that during Tuesday’s storms, the hail beat down leaves and branches, which piled up and blocked catch basin grates.
Then, on Wednesday, debris already on the road from Tuesday was washed into catch basins by the rain.
“We had crews out on both days clearing those up and restoring the flow,” he said.
Many underpasses were flooded both days, and Huston said that while several underpasses have storm pump stations built in to pump out water, debris blocked the intakes and caused problems.
“The volume of the water was another issue,” he said.
“Whenever we get very huge amounts of water in a short period of time, we’re going to get some ponding and pooling in some areas of the city.”
Diane Jones Konihowski, spokeswoman at the Distress Centre, said staff are prepared for an increasing number of calls in the wake of the wet weather, but as of Thursday they hadn’t yet noted more calls than normal.
After two days of destructive weather, people may be experiencing increased stress, said Gail Bailey, a counsellor at the Calgary Counselling Centre, who offered tips to de- stress.
“Try to do things that are relaxing and distracting like spend time with friends, listen to music or do art,” she said.
Kulak, with Environment Canada, said there is good news in store: Highs in the mid- 20s are forecast for Saturday and Sunday.
“We’ll dry out on the weekend,” he said.