TABER — The police chief of a southern Alberta community hit by a tornado says he’s happy with the overall emergency response.
Alf Rudd says things went very smoothly and there were plenty of people who pitched in to help out after the twister touched town near Taber on Tuesday night.
But he admitted Wednesday that things got pretty intense for a while.
“We had trees down. We had some power lines down. We actually had some gas lines worked loose,” he said. “But as the calls came in, we were able to get people out and co-ordinate with the fire and other emergency services and get on top of things.”
No one was injured.
Mayor Ray Bryant took a quick tour of the community Wednesday as officials began to assess the damage.
“It looks like all of our structures are in place. Possibly some fences and a few other odds and ends (were damaged) .... but nothing major,” he said.
It was the first brush with the summer storm season as bad weather cut a wide swath across the region. Environment Canada said the twister touched down eight kilometres north of Taber where 3,000 customers were without power. There were reports of some damage to farm buildings and trees being uprooted by high winds.
Funnel clouds were spotted in the neighbouring communities of Brooks and Bow Island.