Carstairs, Alta., community comes together following massive tornado

The central Alberta community of Carstairs spent Sunday regrouping after a huge tornado struck part of the town Saturday.

“I’ve been in emergency services for 27 years, and I’ve never had this size of tornado incident,” said Carstairs fire chief Jordan Schaeffer, in an interview with CTV News.

“It’s been tough, but my crews have been doing a great job.”

The tornado struck Saturday afternoon around 2 p.m., damaging 14 homes in the Carstairs and Didsbury area, according to Mounties.

Schaeffer said some of those homes were destroyed.

“We have confirmed five homes are 100 per cent completely damaged or will be a complete write-off,” he said. “We do know of four of them that are non-existent at this time.”

Schaeffer said two fire crews were on hand, assisting with cleanup.

Just after 4:00 p.m. Sunday, Hwy 2A was closed in the “tornado zone.”

RCMP say the increased number of drivers coming to the area to “have a look” was causing issues.

 RCMP say a woman was issued a ticket for careless driving and distracted driving when she stopped in the middle of the road, parked her vehicle and proceeded to take pictures – even after she was told to move on by police and peace officers.

“Her actions caused a huge traffic issue. As well, officers had to respond to a collision in the area as people were not paying attention to the road,” read a media release.  

Schaeffer said the number one priority for the community was looking after families displaced by the natural disaster.

“We’re working with RCMP or they’re getting Victims Services lined up,” he said. “Some of them (displaced families) have friends to stay with.

“We’re making sure their mental health is being taken care of.”

While there were no injuries to people reported Saturday, 25 cows and 20 chickens were killed. One horse needed to be euthanized.

'IF I HAD BEEN IN THAT MOBILE HOME, I WOULD BE DEAD'

One of the four homes swallowed up in the tornado was Elisa Humphreys'.

“Well, I have a very, very extreme, extreme case of the airline lost my suitcase,” she said.

Her mobile home and her son’s future home were swept away by the storm.

On Sunday, more than 100 people showed up to clean up her property and sort through the debris.

“The people here today have been so wonderful and they've found pictures that are pictures of my grandparents and they've put it in Ziploc bags,” said Humphreys.

Humphreys says she was sitting on her couch relaxing before the tornado struck. When she got the warning, she looked outside and jetted for her vehicle.

“If I had been in that mobile home, I would be dead,” she said.

“But there's no way I'm gonna stay in a mobile home with a tornado coming towards me.”

She says she wasn’t in fear and took the whole ordeal in stride.

“People wanted me to have been really scared of the tornado and really devastated ,” said Humphreys.

“But I'm kind of a minimalist, and I actually think that something good will come of this, even though I no longer have anything.”

A tornado touched down near Didsbury, Alta., on Canada day, damaging several properties and homes in the area. (Darren Wright)Northern Tornadoes Project is investigating the twister alongside Environment and Climate Change Canada.

“Compared to other tornadoes you typically see around Canada, this is a more significant event,” said Wind Impacts Researcher Connell Miller.

“There's a lot of small details that we need to go through. This was a more significant tornado than usual, but what the exact classification will be, will come out in the next day or so.”

An emergency operations centre was opened in Didsbury according to Carstairs deputy mayor Dean Allan.

“This is devastating. It's just very surreal,” he said.

A Canada Day tornado near Didsbury, Alta., caused significant damage to several properties in the area. (Darren Wright)Schaeffer also recalled a rescue effort of a Carstairs woman who was trapped in the basement of a destroyed home.

“We arrived on scene (Saturday),” he said. “One of my crews was telling me there was someone trapped (in the basement).

“We went over there – myself and the two firefighters – (and) the family members, and we started digging her out.

“We could hear her talking,” he said. “I backed away so I could start running the scene. And (with) the assistance of family members, local citizens and my two crew members, they were able to extricate her out and she had not a scratch on her.

“She was assessed by AHS, but was released back to her family moments after that.”

Despite the traumatic events of a Canada Day unlike any other, Schaeffer said the mood in the community Sunday was positive.

“The mood is actually really good,” he said.

“It’s a lot like the floods of 2013 in Calgary,” he added. “Yes, it was a disaster but everybody is kind of sticking together.

“There’s so much of people going, ‘Hey, can I help?’

“The biggest problem right now,” he added, “is (finding) parking for vehicles. So it’s great to see the community coming together, and trying to help these people who received this disaster.”