City declares state of emergency during wind storm

By Tim Kalinowski on October 18, 2017.

tkalinowski@medicinehatnews.com @MHNTimKal

A local state of emergency was declared in Medicine Hat and the Emergency Operations Centre opened after a ferocious windstorm whipped through the city felling large trees and downing power lines Tuesday evening.

Almost like a prairie hurricane, the sustained winds forced emergency personnel and city workers to continue their efforts through the night as reports of damage filtered in from all over the city.

Lt. Scott Berg of the fire service confirmed all available personnel had been called in from the fire service to keep up with the widespread tree and power line damage. Thankfully, no one was reported injured in the storm, Berg said.

“We are slowly getting a grasp on it, but we have had to put extra manpower on it,” Berg told the News late last evening. “There were small fires throughout the city with downed power lines and arcing. All of them were contained and extinguished. There is definitely some structural damage to the buildings, and guys are checking it out. But daylight will prove what’s out there.”

The Medicine Hat Police Service also had no reports of injuries or death as a result of the storm, but S-Sgt. Kelsey Fraser said extra personnel had to be called in to cope with the influx of reports, especially in the city’s emergency call centre. The switchboards were lighting up all night, confirmed Fraser.

“We have called in extra resources to deal with the call volume on our side,” he says. “Our 911 call centre has extra staff in it right now due to the high call volume. Our biggest concern now is making sure people don’t succumb to interest to come look at the scene and create a hazard to themselves or the police and emergency services. We are saturated with a number of calls, mainly regarding downed trees and power lines which obviously create a hazard to any pedestrians in the area due to arcing and fire.”

At about 10:30 p.m. the city declared a local state of emergency to deal with aftermath of the storm.

According to the city website, approximately 8,200 customers were without electrical service as of press time. Power outages impacted portions of NE and NW Crescent Heights, the Airport area, Brier Park and Echo Dale.

Dunmore and Redcliff were also hard hit in the storm, the city press release said. The city was advising residents to stay at least 10 metres away from downed power lines. Some streets were barricaded off due to downed trees. Parks in the city were also hard hit with many downed trees.

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