On July 31 2007 , It will be 20 years since the tornado that really shook Edmontonians. It was an experience I never want to repeat. The weather had been extremely hot for this area and the humidity was high. An unusual combination this far north. Being from the east we had never heard of a tornado in Alberta. We later found out that there were at least 8 every year. Because they usually touched down in remote places of the province, they were not reported on.
July 31, 1987 was a Friday and the beginning of a holiday weekend. I was working for a moving company at the time and was debating whether I should go and see some clients in the south-east or just head home to the west. I decided to head home because of the long weekend and the traffic I knew would be starting to build. It was extremely humid and the sky was very black with huge cumulonimbus clouds . As I left the west end of the city, I heard it on the radio. A tornado had touched down on the south side. I couldn't believe it. I could have been there. When I got home , it was all over the T.V.
Go to http://www.ee.ualberta.ca/~rob/tornado87.htm. The pictures are unbelievable. I'd make this a clickable link but I have no idea how to do it.
Sections of the city were just demolished. In the east side industrial section a train was taken right off the tracks. Concrete culverts at one company were picked up a deposited over half a mile away. Buildings, of course, were destroyed. Two by fours were punched right through concrete walls like spears.
To the north, one residential neighbourhood was hit and many new house destroyed. The worst devastation was at a trailer park just northeast of this neighbourhood. It was basically flattened.
In all 27 people were killed. Most were in the trailer park.
This was an F4 tornado.
People were kept away from these areas for days. An emergency relief group was set up immediately and is still around today. People would load vans , trailers, trucks , or cars with blankets and food and relief supplies and take it to a central location for the victims. Edmontonians showed they really cared.
When I went back to work, I got to go inside many of the destroyed buildings as companies tried to salvage what they could.Thy needed movers and places to store things. Talk about an eerie feeling.Ceilings were broken down and dripping water, windows blown out. Wall leaning to one side. To get into the area , you had to go through a police roadblock, both in and out.
Right now, we are under another weather warning. This means we could have tornado type weather. We have
learned to watch the sky and keep an eye on the weather. Stay safe everybody
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
9 comments:
Survived a couple of those in my life time, already. Never fails to amaze me, though---no two are ever the same, at least not to me!
Dad always said, if a person hasn't seen at least ONE tornado in his or her lifetime, in this part of the country, he or she must not have been born, to start with!
Bruno: Glad you survived. We could not imagine the devastation that occurred. Unbelievable.I have no wish to be near another one. Scary!
Funny how it affected us all. Most of us remember exactly where we were when the tornado hit. I was stupid - sitting with a girlfriend on the roof of her condo watching the damn thing like it was a movie. Totally surreal. The tragedy of it didn't really hit me until later that week when we had occasion to go to Sherwood Park and there were cars mashed down like pancakes and windows with base-ball-sized holes from the hail, and the apocalyptic looking piles of flotsam and jetson, heartbreaking evidence of a previously unheard of phenomenon in our parts.
Did you know that Edmonton is a tourist attraction for meteorologist-types? We have the most extreme, moody weather of anywhere on the planet because of our proximity to the arctic circle, the mountains, and the plains. Our mercury has a range of over 70 degrees celcius from season to season, and we are about the only place on the planet where you find people out in shorts shovelling their sidewalks in May when a freak snowstorm hits (remember '86? We had to move my sister's birthday party inside because even though it was in the mid-20s there was too much snow to go to the park.) About the only type of weather we don't get here is monsoon/hurricane weather. Knock wood.
Jetsam, by the way. Must have my head in outer space today. ~insert groaning here~ lol
Ticblog: The weather is crazy sometimes here , isn't it. +30 one day, 0 the next.
Hard to believe that the tornado was 20 years ago.
Ticblog: I had a pretty good idea of what you meant. We'll blame it on the weather.LOL
I'm reading your blogs backwards, Moose, so I've already seen the photo of your little trailer. What would have happened if you were in that trailer and the tornado hit. You would probably would have landed in Bruno's back yard.
By the way, do you know that tornado stirred up a lot of unpleasant spirits in the area.
Apparently ghost busters, mediums, and other paranormal types were crawling all over the place trying to get various readings and photos and other proof of the disturbed spirits.
The only tornado I've ever seen was a little dirt devil twister no bigger than a fence post twirling around in a vacant lot we happened to be passing.
When you are typing out your post and you want to put a link in it, type the word you want to link then press the hyperlink icon on the bar that also includes text, bold, italics, spell check, etc. A small window will appear and ask for the address you want to link up with.
Babzy: I could have met the Wizard of Oz if the tornado had it this trailer.
What a great way to meet Bruno. "I thought I would Just drop in".
I read about that with the supernatural. As for not seeing one, count yourself lucky in a way.
Thanks for the instruction on the hyperlink. I'll give it a try.
Post a Comment