High winds pummel Pincher Creek area

Damaged roof in Pincher Creek
T. Lucas photo

Chris Davis and Toni Lucas, Pincher Creek Voice

A wind related power outage affected the entire town of Pincher Creek today on Monday, January 13.  Director of Communications for FortisAlberta Jennifer MacGowan reported that the power outage occurred between 6:15 am to 6:25 am.  Fortis was also busy in the Stavely and Claresholm area on Saturday, January 11.  Two transmission poles came down affecting 50 customers east of Stavely.


Repairs were made on Saturday, but Fortis had to shut down power to make additional repairs on Sunday.

A reminder from Fortis - Always remember to stay 10 metres away from a downed power line and call 310-WIRE.

A too familiar sight on Highway 22
C. Davis photo

Pincher Creek Emergency Services responded to two separate blow-overs involving tractor trailers on Highway 22, 12 to 15 kilometres north of Highway 3.  Responding to both incidents were Lundbreck Fire, Pincher Creek Fire with an engine, Rescue, and an ambulance.  The first call came in at approximately 7:30 pm on Sunday evening, January 12.  One person was transported to Pincher Creek Hospital with minor injuries.

The second tractor trailer rollover occurred today, January 13 at approximately 9:30 am.  One person was transported to Pincher Creek Hospital with minor injuries.  Both vehicles were traveling south bound and ended up in the easement on the other (east) side of the highway. Emergency Services Deputy Chief Pat Neumann stressed that unloaded tractor trailers were particularly vulnerable to this kind of accident on that stretch of highway during wind events such as this one.

Damaged Vista Village roof
T. Lucas photo

Vista Village Senior Center was one of the number of local roofs that were affected by winds in the last 48 hours. Some shingles and other debris could be seen along the Pincher Creek Hospital fence line.

How windy was it?

TransAlta Control Center Supervisor Hal Jorgensen reports that there were wind gusts up to 43 metres per second at Summerview Wind Farm (155 km per hour), and gusts at Cowley Ridge of 40 metres per second (144 km per hour).  Sustained winds reached 120 km per hour.

Castle Mountain watches the wind carefully, as it may affect the safety of those on the slopes.  "It can affect our operations, and sometimes the upper lift can be shut down," said Patrol Manager Kyle Rast.  He reported that the wind seemed to go over the mountain, reporting an average wind speed of 33 km/hr of the last 48 hours with some gusts at 117.5 km/hr.  "We have a good wind sift, it's like we have wind groomed runs."  Rast lives on Highway 22 and said that the wind there was much worse.

Tough Country Communications Owner Brock Lounsbury said that over the last two weeks they have had problems with equipment due to wind.   This included their own towers and related equipment that are serviced by Fortis. Tough Country used to keep wind gathering equipment on some of the towers but they must have been designed for calmer areas.  "The wind tore them apart," said Loundsbury.

According to Shell Waterton Community Affairs Co-ordinator Rod Sinclair "The hourly average has been right around 120 kilometres per hour with gusts slightly above that."