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 was 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 a lot of damage to our electrical distribution transmission system. The current goals right now are obviously safety, looking at road closures, building situational awareness, and then we’ll move on to repairing and restoring those,” Brown said. . Crazy storm just hit pic.twitter.com/hLLkIWAOtS —@joeyj992 Earlier Monday, Environment Canada warned that southeastern Alberta is likely to see strong winds and large hail this afternoon. A tornado watch was also issued near Medicine Hat, Alta., as the Alberta Emergency Alert System says a twister touched down around 1:50 p.m. of Monday. He later described the weather event as a “storm with dangerous and destructive winds” that occurred near Interstate 523 and Interstate 1, damaging homes and vehicles. Dark storm clouds descended on Medicine Hat, Alta., amid a violent storm. (Submitted by Travis Meier) He also noted that there was a detour along 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 on Monday. (Submitted by Dana Marshall) Terri Lang, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, said there was no confirmation of a tornado. There was damage as a result of the high winds, Lang said. At about 4:30 p.m., Alberta’s Emergency Alert website said there was no power in the town of Redcliff, which is northwest of Medicine Hat. There was no estimated repair time. Redcliff RCMP said there are no reports of injuries or missing people in Cypress County.
“I was freaking out”
Cypress County resident Riesa Hertz said the storm caused extensive damage to her property. “I went out on our deck and as soon as I came out, a bunch of rain came down with the wind. It all happened in a split second,” Hertz said. “Then I go in and our barbecue threw that off the deck too and took off some of the liner on it.” Hertz said she and her family were not injured and were safe indoors. But the whole incident was terrifying. “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 banging.” Severe weather in Cypress County Monday afternoon damaged resident Riesa Hertz’s property, blowing her barbecue and patio furniture off her deck. (Submitted by Riesa Hertz) Tanya Croft, director of corporate communications at Fortis Alberta, said the power provider has sent crews to assess the damage in the areas it serves around Medicine Hat. At about 5:30 p.m., Fortis confirmed it had 15 to 20 poles down that required repairs. The damage was in a concentrated area, Croft said in an email to CBC News. “We were able to segment the outage using our distributed automation system … which allows us to isolate the fault 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 was hit with “significant damage” and is now closed to the public, according to a Facebook post from the City of Medicine Hat. “It is expected that clearing of tree limbs and debris in all of our parks will begin on Wednesday after a full assessment is completed,” the post said. More to come.
