At 7 pm central time, a small tornado touched down at Pine Lake Near Red Deer in central Alberta. The twister tore through a campground flipping RV’s and campers and flattened the local marina and coffee shop.
Witnesses say it was a miracle that more people were not killed.
Seven confirmed fatalities so far, but they expect that to go higher as at least 30 of injured are considered in critical condition.
Baseball sized hail and high winds were reported province wide.
I feel for the community as 13 years ago, my community lost 30 people in a tornado.
My heartfelt condolences go out to the families of the victims. Blankets, food and donations are being collected for transport as I post this.
They estimate over 200 are injured and authorities say blood reserves may be low.
All the news is good so far from me & my family’s perspective (since none of us live were in the Red Deer area last night). But guess where exactly I’m going today to join a bunch of my friends at the beach? Yep, Red Deer area… a lake not far from there…
This is just one of those things that puts life right back in perspective, you know?
I used to go to camp B’nai Brith on Pine Lake. I can’t imagine how horrifying that whole scenario must have been. Is this only the second tornado in Alberta ever? Or have there been others (besides that big one in Edmonton?)
The two tornadoes that you’re aware of are probably far and away the biggest that Alberta has ever experienced this century.
But – here in Central Alberta – whenever it gets warm in the summer and it’s even somewhat humid, funnel clouds aren’t exactly rare. Of the very few that touch down though, they’re never really heard about because they’re way out in the middle of nowhere. Thus, no harm is done.
I was watching TV and they went there live… as of last I heard the total dead is now 9… 5 women 3 men and one child.
They were talking to an Environments Canada expert there and he was saying that Alberta has about 16 tornados a year… the majority are F0-F1* and we have F3’s usually about every 4 years or so… this one has been prelimenarily registered as an F3 (the one in 87 was an F4) the last one about an F3 was in 93. He was also talking about the Doppler Radar system and the warnings and such… there were warning for possible tornados out about 45 minutes before it landed but it isn’t known if anyone heard the warnings (Pine Lake was mentioned specifically in the warnings) Thats all I know.
*For those who don’t know (or haven’t seen Twister) this is the rating for tornados based on how much damage was done… F0 being no damage to F5 being the absolute worst.
It just keeps getting worse. Another death. The pictures of the carnage are unbelieveable. There are over 500 camp sites at Pine Lake in the area that was hit and all sites were taken.
Here’s praying there are no more deaths from this tragedy.
The worst part is that they say that some of the dead may only be found out about when they don’t come in to work on Monday.
MY prayers go out to everybody involved
Keith
Mr Gretchen and I were commenting on the big supercell-type cloud that spawned this tornado. (We could see the storm in Calgary which is about 100 miles south of Red Deer.) I haven’t seen such a huge storm around here in years.
It’s kind of weird to think that while we were sitting there, chatting about it, hundreds of people were terrified for their lives.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I need to make some cash/blood donations this afternoon.
By the way, if you want to help with the financial ssistance, you can call the Canadian Red Cross at 1-800-418-1111. I think that this number may only work in Canada, but I’m not sure. I understand that blood supplies have been pretty depleted as well, so c’mon Albertans, roll up your sleeves!