CALGARY — A powerful windstorm ripped through southern Alberta on Sunday smashing windows and downing trees in downtown Calgary and fuelling a grassfire that forced over 100 people from their homes near Lethbridge.
Officials in Lethbridge County, southeast of Calgary, ordered an evacuation for people living in an area just west of Lethbridge due to a raging grassfire that started Sunday afternoon.
County Reeve Lorne Hickey said the wind was gusting up to 100 kilometres per hour, and RCMP were going door-to-door telling people they had to flee.
“We’re trying to get a handle now on where it’s moving and how fast it’s moving,” Hickey said.
Winds blew the flames to the outskirts of Lethbridge and several neighbourhoods were alerted to be ready for possible evacuation, but the winds died down by late Sunday evening and firefighters were able to get the fire under control.
Firefighters in Lethbridge also battled a blaze in an industrial building that lost its roof during the wind storm.
In Calgary traffic in the downtown core was shut down and officials warned residents to stay indoors.
“Right now, there’s just so much stuff falling off buildings that we’re struggling to keep up with calls,” Det. Dean Vegso of the Calgary Police said on Sunday afternoon.
Despite the power of the storm and the extent of the damage, Calgary police said no injuries had been reported.
In High River, south of Calgary, residents were told to leave an apartment building after municipal officials said a fire wall had separated from the building.
The province’s emergency alert system broadcast a warning on radio stations that residents should stay away from windows and watch out for flying debris.
“It’s a lot more severe out in the country where there isn’t anything to block the winds when it’s coming across the fields,” said Jillian Millar, who drove south from Calgary Sunday afternoon with her husband to pick up their daughter from a party.
“We didn’t realize it was as bad as it was when we left the house,” she added.
Millar said farm animals were seeking shelter behind whatever they could find. She said she saw horses huddled beside a parked school bus.
The City of Calgary said several large windows were ripped out of the TD Square office building, and one firefighter working downtown said debris from one building was breaking off and shattering glass in a neighbouring building.
The firefighter said it was “raining glass” in the area.
Police said some parked cars had also been crushed by trees, but fortunately no one was in them.
Locksmiths were needed to get to some highrise balconies where residents weren’t home, and firefighters feared their barbecues may have been damaged, and possibly leaking gas.
Several crossing arms along Calgary’s light rail system were also broken off by wind gusts and the power was knocked out briefly to a number of homes.
RCMP are advising that large vehicles stay off Highway 2 south of Calgary between Nanton and Fort Macleod. They are also urging drivers of large vehicles on the Trans-Canada Highway in southeast Alberta to slow down because of the wind.
There were no reports of injuries.
“That’s incredible, really,when you think about it, because we’ve had vehicles crushed by trees,” said Duty Inspector Paul Stacey.
Despite police closing traffic to Calgary’s downtown, the owner of a sports bar in the city’s core said football fans were still coming in to watch the Grey Cup.
Charlie Mendelman said he saw the police roadblocks on his way into downtown, but was able to get around them.
“I was born and raised in Calgary, so I know the streets really well,” Mendelman said.
Police said it was fortunate the windstorm hit on a Sunday, noting there would have been a lot more people on the streets on a weekday.