Thousands without power as rain, high winds sweep through Calgary and surrounding area

UPDATE: Calgarians cleaning up after wild Wednesday wind storm

Thousands were without power Wednesday afternoon thanks to heavy rain and high winds hammering Calgary and the surrounding area.

The Fortis Alberta website said thousands were affected across several communities, with the hardest hit area being the town of Carstairs.

Didsbury and Mountain View County were also affected.

Causes for the outages range from trees on power lines to “adverse weather” and the high winds.

Crews were working to get the issues fixed and the power back on.

A wind warning was issued for Calgary and surrounding area earlier Wednesday, with Environment Canada saying wind gusts up to 100 km/h were possible in the afternoon.

City of Calgary officials were watching the storm closely, and used the Advanced Weather Forecasting System to send construction companies details about how wind gusts could impact their projects and sites.

“The requirement is to make sure nothing happens,” said Cliff De Jong, senior special projects officer with Calgary Building Services.

“Our expectation is that contractors would be keeping the sites safe and free from debris that may be dislocated from the site because of the winds.”

“Our every expectation is they will continue to comply to make sure no hazards are caused as a result of their construction activities.”

Calgary police and Alberta RCMP also put out weather-related warnings, asking people to stay out of the water and postpone travel plans that involved highway driving until the wind died down.

Anywhere from 10 to 20 milimetres of rain was also forecast to fall in the Calgary area through Wednesday afternoon end evening.