There will be some assessment of the damage on Tuesday morning from a storm that brought intense hail and rainfall through Calgary and other parts of the province on Monday evening.
One of the storms that developed northwest of Calgary became very intense very quickly, said Heather Pimiskern, a meterologist with Environment Canada.
“Some of them moved in from B.C., and what that meant was, as it entered into Alberta, the atmospheric conditions were primed for storms to become severe in nature,” she said.
An Alberta Emergency Alert was originally issued at 7:57 p.m. on Monday, warning of torrential rain and baseball-sized hail for parts of southern Alberta.
The agency advised people to seek shelter whenever there is dangerous weather.
Pimiskern said Monday night that the largest hail size report the agency received from Calgary was roughly 4.5 centimetres in diameter, which is about the size of a golf ball.
Calgary airport damaged
In an email statement to CBC News sent Monday night, a spokesperson for the Calgary Airport Authority confirmed that the YYC Calgary International Airport domestic terminal building had been damaged by hail and heavy rainfall.
“We are prioritizing the safety of all guests and staff and clearing the impacted area. We are currently assessing the damage and its impact to operations,” reads the statement, adding that no injuries have been reported at this time.
The spokesperson said that the airport is anticipating delays to inbound and outbound flights as a result of the damage, and travellers are advised to reach out to their airline to confirm the status of their flights.
In a social media post around 1 a.m. Tuesday, the airport authority said parts of the domestic terminal building will remain closed until further notice, adding that work to clean up the water and assess the damage from the storm had started.
‘Mother Nature comes calling’
During the storm, traveller Jodie Russett says she watched part of the airport’s ceiling fall off.
Russett, who was passing through Calgary from Toronto and heading to Kelowna, B.C., told CBC News she’d have to decide whether to stay overnight at the airport — waiting for her delayed flight to depart — or go stay at a hotel in Calgary until morning.
“What can we do? It’s nobody’s fault, right?”
Russett wasn’t alone. Traveller Emmanuel Ebere was also stuck at the Calgary airport on Monday evening.
“We don’t have any much information regarding when we’re going to be taking off, or if we’re ever going to be taking off tonight,” said Ebere.
“It’s nobody’s fault. Mother Nature comes calling and I guess we just have to adapt to the situation where we’re just going to stay calm … I guess we’ll just flow with the tide.”
