The numbers are in from the devastating wind storm that hit Red Deer this past June.
Red Deer City council will hear details of the impact Monday night.
According to council notes, “On the evening of June 20th the City of Red Deer was impacted by damaging winds, gusting up to 111 km/h. These strong winds resulted in extensive damage to residential and commercial properties, area trees and parks. The impact to the power distribution system was widespread and initially resulted in power outages for nearly 40% of Electric Light and Power (ELP) customers. Three people received non-life threatening injuries.
“The City quickly mobilized. The Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) was activated and a public Call Centre was established. Crews from ELP, Parks, Public Works, Emergency Services and the RCMP worked around the clock to respond to calls for service related to downed trees and power lines and to address the complex needs of the community. The Emergency Management Committee (EMC) met and declared a State of Local Emergency (SoLE) that remained in place until June 24th.”
Council notes go on to say, “The windstorm of June 2017 was complex but staff from across the organization worked together, shared resources and followed a ‘borderless’ approach to respond to and recover from storm impacts.”
Here are the numbers council will discuss on Monday:
• 15,000 properties without power for varying lengths of time
• 3,000+ (as many as 5,000) trees down in natural areas of the park system
• 600 City-owned trees that will require stump removal
• 3,636 calls received by the Call Centre
• 12 times the average number of 9-1-1 calls were received during initial response phase
• 38 damaged power poles requiring removal and replacement
• 3, 500+ metres of downed power lines
• 700 City staff involved in supporting windstorm response and recovery
• $30 million in insurance claims with this number expected to rise
Stay tuned for our full coverage after Monday night’s council meeting.
– Fawcett
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