NEWS PHOTO EMMA BENNETT
City of Medicine Hat crews work to remove fallen spruce trees in the SE Hill area on Wednesday morning after a ferocious windstorm whipped the city Tuesday evening.
UPDATE: City officials say power is back on in Redcliff and that about 50 addresses in Medicine Hat are without power at 3 p.m. The local state of emergency is likely to be cancelled this afternoon.
—————————
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com @CollinGallant
The city is still cleaning up on Wednesday morning after a massive wind storm swept through the city, knocking down trees, cutting power and sparking fires on Tuesday.
A local state of emergency was enacted at 10 p.m. after crews began monitoring heavy wind gusts in the afternoon and opened the city’s emergency operations centre at 7 p.m.
The storm caused problems across Alberta and forced evacuations of large portions of northern Cypress County, the hamlet of Hilda and towns across the provincial boundary in Saskatchewan. Merrick Brown, the city’s manager of emergency response told the News that crews began gaining ground on a flurry of damage reports after the winds died down after midnight.
A survey of damage will take place this morning and more information is set to be released this afternoon.
In Medicine Hat, winds measured above 100 km/h began knocking off power to some communities.
Large trees across the Southeast Hill were pushed over. Fire crews dealt with a grass fire Near the Maple Avenue bridge in Riverside. Police and road crews as well responded to blocked streets.
At its height, 8,200 utility customers — about 20 per cent of homes — were without power. At 10 a.m. Wednesday about 2,200 addresses remained without power, including most of Redcliff and areas south of Echo Dale Regional Park.
Prairie Rose School Division announced schools are closed in Redcliff.
The Family Leisure Centre remained without power and closed in the morning, but officials said it could open later today.
