Another spring storm
Shannon LeClair – Times Reporter
High winds, power outages and 21 motor vehicle accidents is what Strathmore residents faced Thursday April 29.
A spring snow-storm blew into town late Wednesday causing many people to take a snow day.
At the peak of the storm more than 30,000 Fortis Alberta customers were out of power, from south of Red Deer all the way to the Alberta/Montana border.
Near the end of the day nearly 13,000 customers still did not have power, and by the end of the day 2,500 customers were still without power over night.
“Our biggest challenge has been threefold, one the heavy wet snow in combination with the high winds which wrecked havoc on our lines and poles and distribution system, restorations efforts were hampered given unsafe road conditions making it unsafe for our power line technicians. That coupled with problems Altalink was having with their transmission system caused numerous challenges for us,” said Jennifer MacGowan with Fortis Alberta.
“We certainly had some challenges regarding some substations and some lines that were affected by the storm that came through,” said Scott Thon with Alta Link.
“There was still some damage but with the help of Fortis and some of the other folks we were able to make sure that most people from the transmission side have their power,” said Thon.
The Town of Strathmore had road crews out at 6:30 a.m. and when the roadways became a hazard they were shut down.
“The equipment we have available is always there for snow removal and we try to be very proactive when we have an accumulation of snow and impairment to the roadways,” said Dennis Arnold with the Town of Strathmore.
“Snow removal is an ongoing thing whether it is spring, fall or the winter months. If the streets are impassible its still an ongoing thing whether it’s in the budget or not we still have to maintain the roadways.”
The storm didn’t affect local businesses in the way one might have expected. The highway was closed but that didn’t stop people from going out in town. Many people were not able to make it into the city for work.
Rocky Blokland owner of Rocky’s Bakery said the storm was not as bad as the one which hit Town April 14.
“Ironically the people that work in the city sat in my coffee shop,” said Blokland.
“We were still fairly busy, it didn’t hold too many people up,” said Bonnie Muir who works at the Value Drug Mart.
The hardest hit areas were the High River area, west along the foothills east of Airdrie and south of Lethbridge in the Cardston area.