OLDS — In order to prepare for a potential tornado last Thursday, the Town of Olds activated its Emergency Coordination Centre (ECC).
Also, the Olds Regional Exhibition (ORE) was asked to close its weekly farmer’s market to avoid anyone getting hurt if a tornado did touch down in the community.
According to a Town of Olds news release, those decisions were made after Environment Canada issued a tornado warning for Mountain View County at 2:49 p.m. that day.
When a tornado actually touched down east of Bergen, fire crews from Olds were dispatched to help Sundre and Cremona firefighters assess farms and acreages in the tornado’s path.
“After carefully reviewing the weather radar, the Town of Olds activated its Emergency Coordination Centre (ECC) due to the possibility of severe weather affecting the municipality, and key stakeholders were notified,” the news release says.
Deputy Director of Emergency Management Jamie Vasseur says this was the first time the ECC had been activated since it was set up to deal with COVID-19.
It was deactivated on June 9, 2021 “as the town held steady with minimal COVID numbers,” he wrote in an email.
“It is tough decision to activate the ECC because of the resources it can take to maintain it,” Vasseur wrote.
“We decided to activate the ECC because the weather radar was forecasting the storm cell to pass over Olds. It is always best to be proactive in situations such as this.”
The ECC was activated Just before 3 p.m. and demobilized a little before 7 p.m. after it was determined that the storm cell was no longer a threat to produce a tornado.
A reception centre was set up at the Sportsplex. Anyone needing assistance was asked to register there.
In the end, no one actually registered at the Sportsplex.
"But we wanted to set it up earlier in case there were any residents that did not feel comfortable in their homes,” Vasseur wrote.
“The concrete construction of the Sportsplex makes it a safe and sturdy building that would withstand the high winds and debris that go with a tornado.”
Town officials are grateful to the ORE making the “difficult decision” to close the farmer’s market and are also thankful for the assistance of Sundre and Cremona fire departments as well as Alberta Health Services, and RCMP “for the well-coordinated response.”
Vasseur says ECC personal learned some lessons from last Thursday’s event.
“Every time we activate the ECC, or conduct a table top exercise, we always have lessons learned,” he wrote.
“This time, we learned to be a little more proactive with shutting down the splash park, and to patrol the skate park to ensure there are no gatherings in the open air.
“Of course, we cannot control where the residents hang out, but we can close our outdoor facilities so they do not attract large gatherings, which would greatly impact emergency services, and the hospital if there were a tornado.”
Thursday’s storm highlights the need for all residents to be prepared for bad weather, Town of Olds officials said.
One good way to be prepared they say is to download the Alberta Emergency Alert app on your cellphone and have a 72-hour emergency kit ready in case it’s needed.
