BOTTREL— Three teenagers were taken to hospital late Friday (July 24) afternoon after a severe thunderstorm caused a tree to crash onto a campsite at the Bottrel Campground.
Rocky View County Deputy Fire Chief Gary Barnett said the area experienced a severe thunderstorm causing a tree to fall down injuring three teenage campers.
EMS received an emergency call at 4:45 p.m. of multiple injuries due to a tree collapsing on a tent Bottrell Campground.
One of the teenagers was trapped under the tree— Camp staff and visitors were able to lift the downed tree and rescue them before EMS arrived on the scene. He was unresponsive when EMS first arrived but slowly gained consciousnesses and was able to communicate, Barnett said.
The three teenagers were taken to the Calgary Hospitals by ground ambulance, two with minor injuries and one with non-life-threatening multiple serious-injuries.
First responders from Madden, Bearspaw and Cochrane’s Rescue Unit attended the scene.
Witness said there were was “no warning for the storm,” Barnett said.
He added some campers in the area reported a tornado touched down during the storm. As of now, they have been unable to confirm.
“It was definitely a very localized kind of high wind event that happened in the middle of the hail,” Barnett said. “Two areas of the campsite, a lot of the trees were snapped off and a lot of the trees were pulled out of the ground. It was a huge, huge wind event because the trees were very, very big.”
Barnett said he has never seen a storm leave the devastation he witnessed in Bottrel. Dozens of large trees were snapped in half or pulled out by the root from the force of the wind.
Bottrel Store and Campground operator Duane Needham said he has never witnessed a storm of this intensity in the 17 years he has been at the site.
“I’m 71-years-old and I can tell you I’ve seen a lot of storms in my life, but I’ve never seen a storm like this,” Needham said.
At times the hail was so thick it was impossible to see through.
Based on the damage and path of the storm Needham believes the area was hit by a tornado.
“It sheered trees off, it twisted them off,” Needham said. “It hit in places totally disparate from one and other. One line of trees was going one way and one’s going totally the other way 90 degrees south and yet what was between both of them was untouched.”
The worst part was finding out the three boys who had been injured by the falling tree. Needham said four boys were camping between two tents— Three of them were injured during the storm.
Two of the boys were able to escape fairly quickly, he said, but one boy required help.
“Nobody knew he was there he just looked like a lump in the fallen tent,” Needham said. “This young fellow was in really bad shape, he had a branch across his back.”
The storm left a disaster in its path, Needham said, adding that he is grateful to see his neighbours uniting to help clean up the aftermath.
Cochrane RCMP Cpl. Troy Savinkoff said the Bottrel campground storm is the first time RCMP has responded to a weather event that caused an injury.
He noted that if people are stuck in a severe wind storm the safest place to seek shelter is inside a vehicle.
“If people are camping and they’re not protected then the safest place for them would be to leave their tents and whatever temporary structures they have and go into their vehicle to wait out the storm,” Savinkoff said. He added that they should check to see if any trees are in danger of falling in the area.
