Winds of 135 km/h were recorded during last week’s storm
By Diego Flammini
News Reporter
Farms.com
The aftermath of an Alberta windstorm last week reminded John Waldner, a dairy farmer, how powerful Mother Nature can be.
“It’s just something unbelievable what nature can do and how fast it can do it, right?,” he said to Global News on Friday. “We’re nothing – nature has just got power over us.”
The Tuesday windstorm caused wind speeds of up to 135 km/h in some parts of the province. The storm spread wildfires and forced evacuations.
The high winds also caused a barn at Park Lake Dairy Farms in Shaughnessy, Alta. to collapse.
“We just saw the whole building flying up in the air landing on a few cows,” Waldner, who manages the farm, told Global News. “I really honestly figured there were maybe a lot more under there.”
Out of the 220 cows on the farm, only one cow died from the barn collapse. Four others escaped with minor injuries.
All he can do now is move forward, Waldner says, reflecting on how much worse the situation could’ve been.
“We have to move on and we’re going to get (the barn) replaced,” Waldner told Global News. “But this is, to some point, nothing compared to what goes through cities or town and take out their whole housing and trees.”
He estimates the damage is more than $50,000.
Park Lake Dairy Farms is one of a number of farming operations that were damaged during the windstorm.
The excessive winds pushed wildfires towards other farms, forcing some to leave their homes.
Andy Kirschenman, a cash crop farmer from near Hilda, Alta., evacuated his family as wildfires came towards their home.
“It was the fastest moving fire I have ever seen,” he told Medicine Hat News on Tuesday. “It didn’t matter what kind of stubble it was … it made its own wind, and you could actually see it started rotating sometimes.”
The family lost sheds, his parents’ home, headers, a swather, a combine and 300 acres of corn, according to his Twitter account.
Four of his neighbours were also impacted by the high winds and fire, Kirschenman told Medicine Hat News.
Top photo: John Waldner/Global News