Pine Lake Tornado - 10 Years Ago Today - What were your experiances?

[Albertadiver]

Well,

Been thinking about the tornado today, and read a few articles on it.

http://www.albertalocalnews.com/redd..._98253774.html

http://www.calgarysun.com/news/alber.../14675901.html

Both my grandparents went through the Tornado. Two at Sandy Cove, and one at Green Acres. A number of friends were there too.

We farmed just West of Pine Lake and know the Fisher's well. I was roomates with one of thier daughters while she was in University. They attended my grandparent's funerals, and still have an open spot at the restaraunt whenever my remaining Grandmother comes to visit. Two memorial trees are on the property for my other grandparents. Danny, Lexy and their grown kids are wonderful folks.

It seems everyone I talk to has had some sort of connection to this event. My folks were about 10 minutes away when it hit, on thier way out for a BBQ. Mom and Dad shuttled people to the hospital, helped as best they could while my good friend Chad ran around closing propane tanks. I was working for a lumber yard at the time and was on the phone with a person in an acerage across the lake when it hit. Pretty scarey when I heard a "HOLY SH**" then the line went dead.

Dad took these two photo's shortly after it hit. Emergency personel were just arriving.





I was able to help out with the cleanup while it was still closed to the public. I had a chainsaw, dump truck, and bobcat. Later, I worked with a crane company as I had my dive gear and we worked to haul debris out of the lake. Lots of fun, but more importantly I felt I needed to help.

My mom was on the committee for Tree's please. Hundereds of people and businesses helped to plant, purchase, and volunteer to replace some of the hundereds of trees that were lost, not just at Green Acres, but the surrounding farms as well.





More importantly, 12 people lost thier lives. Their families miss them greatly. I only knew a few of them in passing, but this event affected so many people.



I'm sure other board members have similar experiances and ties to this event. Feel free to share.

What came from this is I felt a huge sense of community and support from all over. It's great to see people come together in times of need.

Ya, I was thinking about Pine Lake on Monday when there were tornado warnings out for the Strathmore/Drum area. A real tregedy for sure.

I remember watching that storm build and knew something bad would come out of it. Just never thought it would be that tragic......

[AxeMan]

Same here. I was driving from Edmonton to Calgary that afternoon on July 14, 2000 and I commented to my wife about how bad that storm looked and someone was going to get some intense weather. We were shocked when we heard the bad news later.

[SugarCreek]

I was called in to help triage the most critically ill and help stabilize them until they were airlifted from the hospital (Red Deer) by helicopter until more storms started to set in and they moved the triage out to the bunkers at the Penhold airbase where the lear jets landed to transport the critically ill patients to Calgary and Edmonton. The adrenalin was pumping and I don't think I had any sleep for about a 48 hour stretch. When I did try to sleep, the images of those poor people that I helped with would not leave my mind and it was about 2 weeks later before I could finally sleep through the night. I felt privileged to help with the patients care but I absolutely hope beyond hope that I never see what I saw again in my life. The last lady that I cared for looked to be in her 70's and had so much physical damage to her that it looked like she had been beaten from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet with a baseball bat. Sadly, her husband became the 12th fatality of the tornado the following month in an Edmonton Hospital. ..........Marco

[Albertadiver]

Marco, your comments are very similar to my folks experiance. They were helping people, where many were in shock. Some of the injuries were horrific, but many were walking around aimlessly until first responders were able to help them.

I try to think of the positive's though, people like yourself helping with Triage etc. etc. knowing that people will help each other when in need.

[John Spartan]

I was working at Red Deer Regional Hospital that evening. It was a busy evening from about 7 pm on and we had around 340 people go through our ER that night. Any more people, it would have been more than the ER at that time could handle. We were also quite fortunate that there was a medical doctor's convention going on in Red Deer at the time as having the extra physicians available really helped. Extra hospital staff were called in and were deployed where most needed. Logistics (staff, medications, etc.) were expedited quickly and if any issues arose, dealt with in a quick and practical fashion.

I believe everyone pitched in and did as good a job as possible given that this was the second time anything like this has happened in Alberta (the July 31, 1987 Edmonton tornado was the first).

Marco - A lot of us didn't sleep well in the weeks afterward - would have been nice to have crisis counsellors available right off the start of this for both tornado victims and those who were helping out.

[Twisted Canuck]

My family and I were tenting at Gull Lake, DeGraff's campground, for a family reunion.....the storm came in and absolutely dumped a ton of rain on us, the kid's were floating in their sleeping bag, one end of the tent collapsed. My wife was really...annoyed, that we had bought such a 'cheap' tent.

We didn't realize that a tornado had even gone through until the next morning, when we were heading home and stopped for gas. I saw the front page of the Sun, got a copy and went back to the car. Put the paper in the wife's lap, and said 'Be glad we were camping in a 'cheap' tent at Gull lake, not at Pine Lake. And by the way, they don't make tornado proof tents.'.

My Aunt and Uncle also had a cabin at Pine Lake, opposite side from the campground. They saw the tornada, but luckily the only harm done to them was a tree branch blown onto the roof. Some damage, lots of debris cleanup, but they escaped injury.

Sad day for many though.

[Tuc]

I remember it well. We were camping that weekend and I heard the terrible news on the radio.

[gramps73]

Mom and dad had a seasonal spot at Green Acres Trailer park. Thank god they stayed home that weekend because there trailer was one of the ones in the lake the next day..

[Albertadiver]

My dad and I found a boat lift from Green Acres (had the sign on it) across the lake in a farmers field. Ton of power in that wind.

Going in on cleanup work after the search was over, we'd see a picnic table with wine glasses untouched, yet 20 feet away a trailer stripped to its frame so it looks like a boat trailer.

[hillbillyreefer]

We were on two waiting lists for a group spot for that weekend. One at Pine one at Buffalo. The one at Ol' McDonalds on Buffalo lake came up first so we took it. Fate smiled on my family that weekend.

[mulecrazy]

I was working on a custom harvesting crew in eastern colorado when it hit. I heard the news from a local at a gas station there. It was big news even in the heart of tornado alley. It was a shocker for sure.

[alpineman]

Wow 10 years now, we went camping in Montana with my buddy and his family on our way back we decided to try out Green Acres at Pine lake which we heard so much about, my friends and his family arrived a couple hours before us as we were at the Calgary zoo with our kids, my friend called me and said they decided to go to the campsite next to Green accres (can't remember the name) because they were not allowing fires at green accres but next door they were. Were arrived a couple hours later, the next day we rented a pontoon boat, went by green acres then returned it not an hour later the clouds started looking crazy and wind picked up we rolled up our awnings and within seconds all hell broke we didn't even have rime to grab my son from my buddies trailer next door we all jumped into our trailers and sitting on the floor was like being in a boat on roughy water, and this is a 28ft holiday trailer with all jacks down, sacared as could be, as soon as things slowed a little I russhed everyone into my 99 F350 and my buddy did the same, and just like it all started it was over, We could not belive our eyes, what had just happened, the we heard a tornado just went throught, we later went over the hill and realized the centre was at Green acres, it was like a war zone or I should say worse, they would not let us leave until the next day as to keep the roads open for emergency vehicles. We did not sleep that night.
Years earlier me and my same budy were driving to his place just out of Beaumont we noticed crazy clouds over his place we were just about to pull in and this was one of the first places the big Edmonton tornado hit, we watched his large quansit fly accross the road in front of us when it was all over we drove into the yard and what a disaster his father came climbing out of the rubble he was in the quansit when it hit they had a large welder there and he held on to that till it was over he was lucky only broke a few ribs.
We always cringe when we see the sky change like it did on them two occasions. We still are great friends and just last weekend were camping together. People are always telling us not to hang around each others. But were still great friends. We have been very lucky on these two occasions unlike others my heart goes out to there families and friends. Sorry for all the typos I'm in BC on the ferry writting this on my iphone.

[Albertadiver]

Alpineman, the next closest campground is Sandy Cove. My grandparents had a cabin there for years, and were there when the Tornado hit. (They'd moved to a park model trailer just below the cabin though).

Glad you and your friends were ok!!

[MrDave]

I was still living up at Rimbey at that time. The whole time we were hearing the news, we were looking at the clouds we had. Two long funnels swirled out, in about 10 minutes. Scared the crap out of me. They went back into the cloud as it drifted over the hamlet of Bluffton.


I was out there today, at Pine Lake fishing. Looked up the lake at the reconstructed site, and could not believe the change. I remember going camping there as a teenager. The site I camped under had a huge tree. Now it is all grass.

The way thing works, it could have been any one of us camped there.

It makes you realize what a good Emergency Response Plan can do. This tornado struck just days after the regional meeting. It was all fresh, and worked wonderful. WAY TO GO. The people who were involved did a fabulous job.

[Albertadiver]

Wow, another 10 years go by and still remember things vividly.... 20 years.

[bagwan]

A few days after the tornado a car went through the stop sign at Lousana corner on 21 and I thing (three) or more young people from Quebec (I think) were killed by a truck that ended up in the east ditch. I had just passed through the intersection a half hour before a buddy and he was routed around it. They were looking at the damage from the storm so the rumor goes. Friends on the east side were involved