Update Dec. 29

The hail and wind storm of August 10 in Springbrook has gotten some national attention in the last day or two as a result of Environment Canada releasing its Top 10 National Weather stories of the year. The storm, grouped in with other hail storms and tornadoes that hit Western Canada this past summer, was listed as No. 5.

The most destructive of the 221 record-setting storms was the 30 km long, 12 km wide hail storm that hit Spruce View and Markerville first and headed east to Springbrook ending up just east of Gasoline Alley south of Red Deer. Virtually every building in Springbrook sustained some damage.

Five months later, roughly 80% of the repairs have been completed. It will be well into spring before the project is completed. Delays have been experienced due to the high work load and strain on available tradespeople, first with adjusters, then the insurance companies, contractors and workers.

Once completed however, with most homes requiring new shingles and siding, the community will look brand new. We won't really know until spring as to how the trees fared.

The news articles and pictures related to the storm can be found at www.springbrookwaskasoo.com/news0608storm.htm with additional pictures at www.springbrookwaskasoo.com/stormpix.htm