Key takeaways:
- Thousands of Medicine Hat citizens are without electricity.
- In a Facebook post, the city stated that some areas had damaged infrastructure.
High winds damaged southeastern Alberta on Monday, stranding thousands of Medicine Hat citizens without power.
As of 8:45 p.m. MT, there were 5,738 houses in Medicine Hat, Redcliff, and Cypress County without power, according to a Facebook post from the City of Medicine Hat.
According to the city’s website, power had been fixed to about 1,700 houses in northeast Crescent Heights.
In a Facebook post, the city stated infrastructure had been damaged in some places.
“We have quite extensive damage to our electric diffusion transmission system. Present objectives are safety, looking at the shutdown of roads, and gathering situational awareness. Then we’ll move on to repair and repair those,” said Merrick Brown, emergency management director for the City of Medicine Hat.
The city said on its website that power outages might persist throughout the night.
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Before Monday, Environment Canada cautioned that southeastern Alberta would probably see high winds and large hail this afternoon. A tornado warning was also given near Medicine Hat, Alta. Alberta’s emergency alert system says a twister touched down near 1:50 p.m. Monday.
It later described the climate as a “storm with challenging and damaging winds” that occurred on Highway 523 and Highway 1, driving damage to homes and cars.
It also reported a detour was in place along Township Road 122, east to Range Road 71, and south to Highway 3.
Terri Lang, an Environment Canada meteorologist, said there had been no assurance of a tornado. There has been damage as an outcome of high winds, Lang said.
At approximately 4:30 p.m., the Alberta Emergency Alert website said there was no power to the town of Redcliff, which is northwest of Medicine Hat. There was no estimated time of restoration.
Source – CBC News
