Weather in Olds today is expected to be warm and sunny with a high of about 24 C and winds are expected to be moderate, about 18 kilometres per hour (km/h).
That's a strong contrast to conditions last Monday night when winds howled and rain hammered the town.
On that night, winds gusted as high as 63 km/h, strong enough to move barbecues and even tear off railings for steps in some cases.
A large spruce tree was blown down in the Olds Cemetery, and tree branches – some very large ones – blew down in alleys and lawns in various parts of the community.
Also, fences surrounding a couple of construction projects along highways 27 and 2A were blown down.
But the big issue for many was the power outage created by the storm.
About 104 customers were without power for about an hour as a result of the storm, according to FortisAlberta manager of corporate communications Alana Antonelli.
“However, damage to our facilities was minimal,” she says.
Aside from that, “other than a lot of leaves and pine cones blown onto the streets we have not had any reports of major damage. Hanging flower baskets are looking pretty wind-whipped,” Olds chief operating officer Scott Chant says.
Damage was much worse in Sundre, especially at the Tall Timber Leisure Park, which was evacuated after trees were uprooted, smashing through the roof of an RV. Miraculously, no injuries were reported.
FortisAlberta officials say a “major outage” on a breaker cut power to at least 373 customers. Power was not restored until about mid-afternoon Tuesday.
"Damage to our facilities was minimal."ALANA ANTONELLIMANAGER CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS FORTISALBERTA
