Wind storm causes little damage

By Medicine Hat News on February 23, 2021.

The wind huffed and puffed but in the end caused very little damage locally, the city says.

From early Sunday afternoon and through the night the wind gusted up to 84 km/h at Medicine Hat Regional Airport, according to Environment Canada’s website.

Trees swayed and bent but very few broke.

“Though it is early in the investigation, there has been no significant damage reported to any city trees or infrastructure as a result of last night’s wind event,” said a city spokesperson in an email on Monday.

People living on the S.E. Hill and near the hospital experienced a power outage just after 9 p.m. Sunday night.

A spokesperson for the city says that there were numerous calls about local power issues from the wind and there was a report of one tree coming down at a private residence.

According to provincial media reports the power outage at about 9 p.m. Sunday night was related to power lines between Alberta and B.C. Thousands of homes and businesses in Calgary, Edmonton, Medicine Hat and other communities were impacted for about 17 minutes.

“The outage duration was short as the city was able to stabilize quickly,” said a city spokesperson on Monday.