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Brief August hailstorm wreaks havoc on property
By Editor
A 10-minute hail and rain storm on Saturday evening wreaked havoc on many Foothills properties.
While some residents were left with demolished gardens and a blanket of leaves, others were faced with extensive property damage from the golf-ball sized hail that hit at about 9:40 pm.
Those who seem to have been hit the worst by the storm are the residents east of Okotoks.
Many Aldersyde residents were left with the siding on their homes punched with thousands of holes, windows smashed, holiday trailers damaged and lawn furniture in shreds.
According to Christine Law, an Aldersyde resident, the hailstorm, which was said to have lasted only two minutes, quickly left its destructive mark.
'It was terrible,' she said. 'Pretty much everyone in town had substantial damage. It sure didn't take long to take the spirit out of (the summer).'
Law herself was left with damage to her holiday trailer, vinyl siding, which had been punctured by the force of the hail, and on Monday morning she had already cleaned up seven bags of discarded leaves.
'You wouldn't think you would be doing leaf clean-up in the middle of August,' said Law.
'Trees were destroyed, there are no gardens left and no flower gardens. The lawn furniture has all been just shattered,' she added. 'It just literally poured buckets. Everyone who didn't have their vehicle in a garage suffered damage.'
Brian Huth, another Aldersyde resident suffered similar damage from the hailstorm.
'If anyone had any lawn furniture it (the hail) just turned it into swiss cheese,' he said.
Aldersyde resident Don Bate described the sound of destruction. 'Quite frankly, it sounded like a freight train going right over the roof. I have never heard anything like it before,' he said.
Bate also suffered from extensive damage to his house, siding, eavestroughs, shingles, two trucks and a trailer.
'It looked like someone took a ballpeen hammer (to the trailer),' he said.
Damage from Saturday night's hailstorm was also seen throughout Okotoks and surrounding areas on Sunday. Some homes, especially the Crystalridge area, looked as though a machine gun riddled the back of the home with hundreds of shots.
According to meteorologists, Okotoks is at the south end of Hailstorm Alley.
LOST gray tabby female cat with white chest and paws. Last seen in the 100 block of Suntree Place on Aug. 6, 2002. Answers to Boo. Call 938-6839.
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Brian Huth of Aldersyde holds some of the marble-sized hail stones that pounded his home in the hamlet south of Okotoks last Saturday. The hailstorm, that lasted less than 10 minutes, left the siding on Huth's home looking like it had been hit by shotgun blasts. Many other homes in the small community on Highway 2A suffered similar damage as the storm shredded lawn furniture, broke windows and dented vehicles.
- photo by John Barlow
Deerfoot Trail project resumes — finally!
By Editor
Construction on the Deerfoot Trail extension should begin again this fall after a summer that saw little being done.
Last Wednesday was the deadline for tenders to be submitted to Alberta Transportation for the final phase of the massive extension project.
Fred Lee, construction engineer for Alberta Transportation, said he anticipates work to resume on Deerfoot Trail after the tender is awarded next week.
'There is still a lot of work to be done and whoever is awarded the contract will have a very tight schedule,' said Lee. 'We are still confident we can still meet our completion date of the fall of 2003.'
When the Deerfoot Trail extension project was initiated in 1999 it was expected the freeway would be completed in October 2002.
However, in March the provincial government announced spending cuts of more than $1 billion which substantially impacted Alberta Transportation.
As a result Alberta Transportation had to shelf portions of the Deerfoot Trail project and delay the completion of the freeway one year until October 2003.
With the budget cuts Deerfoot Trail remained dormant for most of the summer.
'The cutbacks affected our department tremendously,' said Lee.
Although the cutbacks resulted in the delay of the extension, it did allow Alberta Transportation to address some technical issues that needed to be resolved regarding Deerfoot Trail.
Through the summer those problems were resolved and Lee said once the contract has been awarded construction will commence almost immediately.
Land acquisition was completed last year and the majority of the grading has been completed.
What remains to be done includes bridge work on the Bow River, grading at Highway 2 and underlay and surfacing of the entire stretch from Calgary south to Highway 2. The bridge over the Bow River is expected to be completed by September.
The remaining construction work is estimated to cost $25 million.
With the tender process coming to a close, Lee said Alberta Transportation is revving its engines eagerly anticipating the green light to proceed.
'We are anxious to get going,' said Lee. 'The contractor will have to use every good day through the winter and next summer to get the project done. We have to be done by the fall of 2003.'
