One per cent of residents remain without power: City

The City of Red Deer says they’ve whittled down the number of homes without power to 400, or just one per cent of all homes in the city.

Crews have made great progress working around the clock to restore power, City officials said at a news conference Thursday afternoon.

In the immediate aftermath of the storm, they say 12,000 customers were left in the dark.

The City’s priority areas right now are Vanier Woods, Riverside Light Industrial and parts of Glendale and Normandeau. Crews are targeting Saturday morning for full restoration.

“There are so many factors at play,” Emergency Management Coordinator Karen Mann noted. “The ongoing wind situation creates challenges and we have to make sure that we can do things safely and in a manner that respects the urgency, but also doesn’t compromise employee or resident safety.”

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Downed trees and power poles continue to be the main obstacle to getting power back on. Forty power poles were damaged and needed to be replaced, with 15 left to go as of Thursday afternoon. The City says they are focusing on the major issues that affect the most residents before turning their attention to smaller pockets.

Mann said cleanup efforts like this would normally take up to three weeks, but the partnerships between City crews and contractors has been exceptional.

“They’ve been able to work around the clock and triage calls for service in a manner that is efficient and safe and has kept our residents safe, which is our primary concern at all times,” she said. “We’re looking at trees and continuing to work at remediating issues within the park system so they can get the trails up and open for the public again as we know that that is a central focus in our community.”

Residents with small branches up to 1-inch in diameter and up to 4-feet long can set them out for regular yard waste collection. The City says branches should be bundled and tied with a string and that there is no limit on the amount of yard waste you can set out as long as it’s contained properly.  

Branches larger than 1-inch in diameter or more than 4-feet long can be dropped off at the Edgar Industrial Drive snow storage facility until Monday, July 3 (between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m.).

Diseased branches or elm wood must be taken to the landfill for burial and cannot be put out for yard waste collection or taken to the snow storage facility. Garbage, sod or other yard waste material can be put out with regular yard waste pickup. Tree debris, shingles and other debris can be dropped off at the landfill.

Residents that have been without power since Tuesday should discard any food from their fridge or freezer and should contact their insurance provider to inquire about compensation. As a result of the increase in garbage, the City has relaxed the five bag limit for areas with an extended outage.

Those disposing of food from fridges or freezers are asked to double bag in an attempt to minimize odours. The five bag waste limit for the hardest hit areas is being relaxed until next week (June 29). 

If residents need assistance as it pertains to income support or food vouchers, you can contact the 24-hour Emergency Income Support Contact Centre at 1-866-644-5135 or 780-644-5315. If you require grocery vouchers, call the City of Red Deer at 403-342-8111.

Volunteer Central is coordinating volunteers to help fellow Red Deerians with light yard clean up as a result of Tuesday’s storm. If you would like to volunteer, or if you require assistance, contact Volunteer Central at 403-346-3710 or community@volunteercentral.ca.

Mayor Tara Veer said the City’s Emergency Operations Centre has been in contact with Environment Canada with respect to the type of weather event that occurred. 

“Environment Canada has confirmed that it was called a straight wind in a band across the city,” she says. “This type of wind activity is known to occur but is notably not common in highly populated areas, which speaks to the devastation that we’ve experienced as a community.”

Veer went on to say that they will dissolve the EOC if able, but the advantage of having one is that they can draw on certain resources. The EOC is currently scheduled to be in place until Tuesday.

Veer also said it’s too early to put a price tag on the damage caused by the storm.

“Obviously in declaring a local state of emergency, we centralize our response both in terms of the capital and operating costs, and the implications that has for the city. So we do track that as we go, however we probably won’t have a sufficient and full number for that, at least within the next couple of weeks because right now our focus is completely on restoration of order to the city,” she said.

“It’s difficult to speculate, but that number in the coming weeks would include the capital expenses, particularly when you think of the number of power poles that were damaged, those are obviously significant capital assets. As well as the tree canopy in the city and when you consider that we have at minimum 150 personnel working around the clock for the last 67 hours and counting, that’s a significant cost to the city as well.”