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Windy?
The one word conjured up dozens of virtual responses and comments on the Lac La Biche POST’s facebook page and the social media pages of sister papers in Bonnyville and St. Paul last night — as wind gusts of up to 70 kilometres per hour smashed across the Lakeland region. The winds also created actual problems for area residents.
Damage within communities across central, north and northeast parts of the province saw trees uprooted, powerlines toppled and in areas around Edmonton, semi-trucks tipped onto their sides and some roofs lifted from buildings.
The winds created a weather advisory being put into effect by Environment Canada for much of northern Alberta.
Across the Lakeland, wind gusts topped out at 70 kilometres per hour in the Cold Lake and Bonnyville areas just before midnight Tuesday. Top wind gusts in the St. Paul area were reported by Environment Canada at 45 kph.
Power outage
In the Lac La Biche region, with gusts hitting as high as 66 kilometres per hour, a short power outage was reported in several areas in and around the Lac La Biche hamlet during the supper hour. The outage lasted about 20 minutes.
In the light of day on Wednesday, it was clear the storm had also left debris in its wake, which municipal crews and residents were busy cleaning up, even as the high winds continued through the day.
“The power did go out at a number of utility facilities, but the buildings that had generators were able to function on back-up power,” A few lift stations had to be monitored, but power was restored before staff ran into any issues,” said Lac La Biche County spokesperson Jihad Moghrabi on Wednesday as crews continued to assess and fix damages. “Transportation Services has three crews out cleaning up trees and branches throughout the County, and extra traction control is being applied on certain roadways.”
Traffic issues
Moghrabi said the extreme weather did affect travel around the area, including complaints of blocked roadways due to downed trees and several reports of vehicles driving into the ditches of area highways.
“Peace Officers attended a few alarm calls and complaints about blown-down trees blocking roadways. They also attended the scene of a semi-truck that went into the ditch due to high winds just west of Plamondon, along with couple other “vehicle in ditch” type calls,” said Moghrabi.
According to Environment Canada weather stations that monitor the area, the most severe wind gusts through the Lac La Biche area happened between 7 pm Tuesday night and 1 am Wednesday, with windspeed gusts hitting 66 kilometres per hour and sustained winds holding at more than 40 kph.
On Wednesday, the severity of the winds eased slightly, but still hit sustained speeds of more than 40 kph and gusts of more than 60 in the early morning hours. Wind gusts continued to race across the community of Wednesday until around noon when lighter winds brought a blanket of snow. Sporadic gusts did continue into the afternoon.
Environment Canada withdrew the weather advisories late Wednesday morning.
No buses
School divisions across the region saw several bus routes cancelled. Lakeland Catholic Schools cancelled 48 of its bus routes across the division, and Northern Lights Public Schools had half of its 100 bus routes cancelled due to strong winds and poor road conditions.
