Thunderstorm causes flood in Chestermere, power outages in Calgary

CALGARY – It took only a matter of minutes for the sudden storm to create rivers flowing down streets and into garages and basements in Chestermere Sunday morning.

READ MORE: Cleanup underway in Chestermere following weekend flooding

Donna Riopel couldn’t believe it when a torrent of water gushed through her door and flooded her main floor and basement.

“Literally, when I opened this door, whoooosh, I had to close it with all of my force. The only thing I can do when this was happening is say god bless, it’s a four level split, I still have two floors upstairs where I can keep dry,” Riopel said. “A flash flood, within 45 minutes the whole entire basement is full, my basement is full of water and the whole backyard.”

Sidewalks quickly caved in and fences and garage doors were damaged by the force of the water.

WATCH: Sunday morning, the calls started coming in from people whose homes were being inundated with water. The short intense storm brought in a huge amount of water that overwhelmed storm drains. The Alberta emergency public alert system sent out a warning about overland flooding in Chestermere, that’s left a lot people, with a lot of clean up work. Carolyn Kury de Castillo has more.

A steady stream flowed from a home and poured out into the backyard.

“It just can’t take the volume of water from the freak storm. I haven’t seen water like this in 25 years at least, just phenomenal. It’s pretty scary to see the lightning every so often the strikes are fairly close.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "It just can't take the volume of water from the freak storm. I haven't seen water like this in 25 years at least, just phenomenal. It's pretty scary to see the lightning every so often the strikes are fairly close."

Cars were stranded on flooded roads, while parts of Chestermere are accessible only by truck or emergency vehicles.

Chestermere Protective Services began receiving calls of overland flooding from residents throughout Chestermere following the early morning thunderstorm in the area.

“While short, this was an intensely severe storm that brought an amount of water that overwhelmed our systems” said Director of Emergency Management Steve Bagley. “We are working hard to assist residents and restore services as quickly as possible. Fortis Alberta reports that power has been restored to many parts of the City and is working on the remaining areas, Chestermere Lake water levels are under control, and City staff are working to clear backed up storm drains as quickly as possible. West Merganser Drive remains impassable at this time.”

“We’ve got about a foot of water in the basement. There is a lot of people who got a lot worse. It’s been an interesting morning,” said Greg Christie, who’s basement flooded.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "We've got about a foot of water in the basement. There is a lot of people who got a lot worse. It's been an interesting morning," said Greg Christie, who's basement flooded.

“It was running through our driveway and into our backyard.”

Several homes in the Calgary area were hit by lightning strikes Friday night and Saturday morning and power was out in several neighbourhoods in the city as well as surrounding towns.

Several flights scheduled to fly out of Calgary’s International Airport were cancelled due to the thunderstorm. More than two dozen were cancelled. 

West Jet says they were unable to get our morning flights out until around lunchtime due to a five hour lightning advisory at YYC.

There were multiple delays and cancellations and West Jet says they expect it will take a while to clear the backlog. This follows a major fog issue in St John’s the last few days, which also cancelled many flights.

View image in full screen