Damage from storm to be determined as hail tears through parts of southern Alberta

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 EmergencyAlert was originallyissued at 7:57p.m. on Monday,warningoftorrential rain and baseball-sized hail for parts of southern Alberta.

The agency advisedpeople toseek shelter whenever there isdangerous weather.

Pimiskern said Monday night thatthe 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.

Calgaryairport damaged

In an email statement to CBC News sentMonday night, a spokesperson forthe Calgary Airport Authority confirmed that the YYCCalgary 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 thatno injuries have been reported at this time.

The spokesperson said that the airportis anticipating delays to inbound and outbound flights as a result of the damage,andtravellers areadvised 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 saidparts of the domestic terminal building will remain closed until further notice, adding that workto clean up the water and assess the damage from the storm had started.

'Mother Nature comes calling'

During the storm, traveller Jodie Russettsays she watched part of the airport's ceilingfall off.

Russett, who waspassing through Calgaryfrom Toronto and heading toKelowna, 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 Eberewas alsostuck 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."