The storm that swept through the area early this week caused "pockets of significant damage" at Tall Timber Leisure Park, said the recreational resort's manager. "It was a little scary," said Rebecca Trotter.
The storm that swept through the area early this week caused "pockets of significant damage" at Tall Timber Leisure Park, said the recreational resort's manager.
"It was a little scary," said Rebecca Trotter.
The surprise storm swept through on the evening of Monday, Aug. 22 and relentlessly lashed the Sundre region well into the early hours of the following morning. The heavy, consistent rainfall combined with strong winds also caused damage throughout the area, including numerous felled or uprooted trees as well as broken branches.
A FortisAlberta spokesperson told the Round Up there had been a major outage on a breaker feeding 373 customers west of Sundre, including the West Fraser plant, for a couple hours on the evening of Aug. 22. The cause of the outage was trees on the lines, said Kevin Haslbeck.
"We also experienced numerous single customer outages in the Town of Sundre as a result of trees coming down," he said, adding all outages were restored by the following day.
The weather seemed to have come through with little warning.
"I never felt the winds were significant at all," said Trotter, recounting the moments leading up to the storm.
"And then all of the sudden, I started getting phone calls from the reception area that we had no power, we had downed power lines, and we had trees that were down as well as some really significant damage."
When trees started to take down power lines, she immediately took measures to evacuate people from the indoor pool and coordinate efforts with reception.
"My very first concern as soon as the power went out was getting people out of our swimming pool because instantly the water is not being moved through our filters and our chemical program is not working," she said.
"Then, my next concern was where the power lines were down and where we had any issues with persons that were near the downed power lines. And then from there you go to where trees were down and what properties or structures are damaged. You kind of take your first priority and make your way down the list."
As trees continued to break and collapse, several permanently situated trailer homes and park models as well as a recreational vehicle were also struck hard.
"It just seemed like trees were coming down left, right and centre. As we were driving around the owners' section, just kind of assessing the damage and deciding what we needed to do, there were trees coming down almost right in front of us."
With no sign of abating any time soon, the severity of the storm led Trotter to become increasingly worried for the safety of the park's residents and visitors.
"I'm thinking, 'I've got too many people here, with too many dangerous situations going on at the same time — I need to start getting people out of this park'," she said.
So she quickly contacted the Sundre Fire Department and FortisAlberta. Following the prompt arrival of several firefighters, including Deputy Chief Kevin Gamble — who also happens to be the operator of the leisure park's indoor pool — efforts began to verify the safety of residents and visitors, she said.
"I brought (responders) over with me to go and look at some of the areas that I was concerned about."
Shortly afterwards, at about 8 p.m., the decision was made to begin a voluntary evacuation of the park, she said.
"We wanted to get people out of here. I was very thankful to emergency services because they came right away and they really helped coordinate all the efforts to get everybody out of the park."
However, a few people did stay, either because they had nowhere else to go or they did not want to leave. As the situation was too dangerous for the Fortis crew to work, the park remained without power until the following day, she said.
"We felt that (the response) was very coordinated, it was never chaotic."
Trotter expressed her unwavering gratitude for the efforts of the local fire department's responders.
"Our volunteer firefighters are so outstanding, they responded very quickly. They were so professional. I've always had a lot of respect for the Sundre Fire Department but even more so now. The way they took control, the way we spread out, the way we worked together and coordinated our efforts to get people out of the park," she said, adding she was also proud of her staff.
Angela Kosolofski, an Airdrie resident who had come out for her first visit to Tall Timber with family and friends hoping for the opportunity to relax for the weekend, owns the recreational vehicle that was occupied when a tree crashed into and largely collapsed the roof of its rear section.
Although she wasn't in the trailer at the time, two of her friends were playing cards barely a few feet away from where the roof caved in, she said the following morning, taking a moment from cleaning the site and offering to show the extent of the damage caused.
Despite the ruined weekend, Kosolofski — whose RV was insured — seemed to remain in good spirits, smiling and candidly recounting the harrowing events of the previous night, relieved that no harm came to her friends.
"I don't care about the trailer — well, of course you sort of do, but all I really care about is that no one was hurt," she said.
"I'm just glad they're safe."
After evacuating the park as much as possible, locking up, and updating the resort's website to inform people about the situation, Trotter said she "went and hunkered down for the night. I kept hearing 'crack! crack!' in the middle of the night."
In the end, the silver lining was that no one sustained any injuries, she said.
However, she expressed empathy for the people whose down time became such a stressful experience. During challenging economic times, people are trying to make the most of their vacation time. While not everyone can afford to go somewhere far away, many are able to enjoy exploring their large backyard, said Trotter.
"People need that time to get away from the city, to get away from work. And that's what we're here for — we're Tall Timber Leisure Park. We're here for you to come relax, have a campfire, laugh with friends, be in nature, enjoy the pool," she said.
Visitors come to unwind but in this case ended up more stressed, she said.
"There is no relaxation with this weather the way it's been. It's very difficult for people because they come here with the mindset of relaxation, fun, enjoyment and all of the sudden they're placed in this type of a situation," she said.
Trotter said an underlying factor that led to so many trees cracking that night must have been the accumulative result of the highly unusual amount of strong storms that have consistently pummeled the region for about a month.
"It's just been weird — one storm after another after another. These storm systems are obviously taking their toll on our trees. We have lots more trees now that are on the verge (of collapse)."
In the aftermath of Monday's storm and all of the others over the past several weeks, certain trees remain precariously standing after suffering substantial stress and could potentially become dangerous the next time a powerful storm strikes, she said.
"We're getting tree companies to inspect and identify the most dangerous trees" to preemptively take them down before nature does, she said.
The storm's devastation was not widespread but it certainly caused "pockets of significant damage." Although the weather left scattered and seemingly random destruction to properties throughout the park in its wake, at least no one was injured, she said.
"We're so lucky that nobody was hurt."
