Extreme winds caused a train to derail in central Alberta Tuesday.
Crews from the Three Hills RCMP and fire department responded at around 5:20 p.m. to a derailment about 1.5 kilometres south of Huxley.
Police said 28 rail cars carrying 56 sea containers were blown off the tracks.
Debra Grosfield, deputy director of emergency management for Kneehill County, said it appeared the cars that derailed carried sea cans — but due to hilly terrain, the entire train could not been seen from her vantage point.
“One house was evacuated, just as a precaution,” she said. “There’s no explosions happening, no fires, they’re off the tracks.”
RCMP said “extreme winds” pushed the cars off the tracks.
“It’s a very windy day,” Grosfield confirmed Tuesday. “It is extremely windy in our area. There was an actual wind warning that was put out by Environment Canada.”
According to police, the derailment did not result in any injuries or hazardous materials spilled, and was not blocking any traffic.
Initially, residents were asked to stay away from the area until more was known about the situation. They were allowed to return home about three hours later, RCMP said.
The Transportation Safety Board deployed investigators to the site Wednesday morning.
In an email to Global News Tuesday night, CN confirmed it is “responding to two incidents in Alberta.”
There was another train derailment about 250 kilometres northeast of Huxley, on a trestle bridge near Wainwright. Police have not confirmed if that derailment was also caused by high winds.
Severe winds also caused semi-trailers to flip over on Highway 2 in central Alberta on Tuesday, and fuelled several wildfires.
READ MORE: Wind wreaks havoc on QE2 between Edmonton and Calgary
“A derailment involving multiple cars just south of Huxley, Alta. and an incident about nine miles west of Wainwright. We’ve activated our emergency response plans and crews are headed to both sites to assess the situation. There are no reports of injuries in either incident.”
Police said Wednesday morning CN crews had recovered the rail cars and the sea cans.
Huxley is located about 135 kilometres northeast of Calgary.
Watch below: Cars derailed from trains in two different parts of Alberta on Tuesday. As Sarah Kraus reports, one of the derailments saw cars go over a bridge and into a valley.
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