An intense winter storm hit much of southern Alberta Dec. 2 and 3, blanketing the county in a thick layer of snow.
Major highways around the county were closed down due to poor driving conditions including Highway 1A from the Stoney Trail Junction to Highway 21. The RCMP discouraged travel on Highway 2 due to snowdrifts – some reported to be as high as 10-feet tall.
Emergency Shelters
The Village of Beiseker, the Town of Chestermere and the Town of Strathmore opened temporary emergency shelters, providing food and a place to sleep for stranded travellers.
Bob Ursu, fire chief for the Beiseker Fire Department, said the shelter was set up in the Beiseker Community Centre and saw 24 people take refuge during the two days of the storm with 19 spending the night on Dec. 2.
“Members of the fire department did the majority of helping at the shelter,” he said. “We got them blankets and pillows and mats.”
Ursu added the firefighters also provided stranded guests with supper and snacks, and cooked them a pancake breakfast on Dec. 3.
“The last one left at 3:30 p.m. on Dec. 3,” he said.
He said all of the guests were people travelling through the town on their way to a final destination and had no other option but to wait out the storm in the shelter.
On Dec. 2, 17 motorists who were impacted by the multi-vehicle crash on Highway 1 involving more than 20 vehicles were transported by bus to the Chestermere Regional Recreation Centre where they were provided with coffee and doughnuts donated from the local Tim Hortons.
“A few people were a little bit bruised and banged up and received first aid from EMS and the fire department here in Chestermere,” said Patty Sproule, the Director of Community Services for the Town.
One person was transported to their home in Chestermere and five people were taken to their home’s in northeast Calgary. Friends and family picked up eight people. Three people were transported to hotels in Calgary.
The shelter remained open for three hours until the last motorist was able to find accommodations.
When conditions became too severe to allow motorists on Highway 2, RCMP redirected seven motorists to an emergency shelter in Airdrie at the Genesis Place Recreational Centre.
Highways
Adverse conditions forced road closures and caused numerous accidents on southern Alberta highways on Dec. 2. Alberta Transportation closed Highway 1 from Stoney Trail in Calgary to Highway 36 near Brooks on Dec. 2 at around 5:30 p.m. until 1 p.m. on Dec. 3. Highway 1 from Stoney Trail to Strathmore was closed from 5:30 p.m. Dec. 2 until 8 p.m. Dec. 3.
Motorists were directed to stay off highways and seek shelter and be prepared to spend the night in their vehicles.
Strathmore RCMP dealt with three significant accidents including a multi-vehicle collision that included cars and transport trucks that went into the ditch off Highway 1 near secondary Highway 21 east of Strathmore.
Drivers lost control and drove their vehicles into ditches, became stuck in impassable snow drifts and collided with one another on Highway 1 westbound, near secondary Highway 21.
Two other multi-vehicle incidents were reported at Highway 1 and Highway 24, and along much of Highway 564. More than 30 vehicle damage reports have been submitted thus far, but no injuries have been reported.
“Thankfully there were no injuries, it was a lot of vehicle damage though,” said Sgt. Steve Vince, Strathmore RCMP, who explained that while dangerous driving charges can’t be immediately ruled out, it looks as if Mother Nature was to blame. “Charges aren’t a definite thing in these situations, right now it looks to be mainly weather related.”
RCMP attended the scenes, though not without difficulty and snow removal equipment was kept clear due to unsafe road conditions.
“It’s not easy for us to get to all of the accident scenes,” said Vince. “We’re in the same vehicles as everyone else and on the same roads.”
Road clearing
Rocky View County staff was monitoring the progress of the storm and had 38 pieces of equipment ready to clear the County’s 2,400 km of roads.
“Safety was our No. 1 concern, and our operators pulled over and stopped plowing when it was necessary,” said County’s General Manager of Infrastructure and Operations Byron Riemann in a press release. “But the second things cleared, our crews were right back out there. They showed remarkable dedication.”
As of Dec. 5, all County roads have at least one lane open to traffic and road crews continue to work to clear all lanes.
School Closures
Rocky View Schools (RVS) issued division-wide school closures on Dec. 3 and all Catholic schools in the Rocky View region were also closed due to the severe weather.
Though Environment Canada could not provide snow accumulation results for much of the county due to a lack of reporting stations in the area, it reported Springbank received 29 centimetres of snow, Airdrie was blanketed in 17 cm and the Calgary International Airport reported 14 cm.
“When we get a blowing snow event like this it’s really hard to measure the amount of snowfall,” warned Bill McMurty, a meteorologist for Environment Canada.
Wind gusts were recorded at 87 kilometres per hour in Beiseker and 80 km/hr in Strathmore, according to Environment Canada.
McMurty said the storm affected much of southern Alberta, with Lethbridge and the Foothills area being the hardest hit.
“This one covered such a large part of the province,” he said.
McMurty said a low pressure system moving south from Alaska resulted in the high amounts of precipitation and high winds, and is not unusual for this time of year.
However, he said this storm was a large one, the size of which the province only seems to get about once every three years.
-With files from Sara Wilson and Matt Durnan
