Homes destroyed, livestock lost following large tornado in central Alberta

A dozenhomesare damaged and at least five completely destroyedafter a large tornado came throughMountain View County, north of Calgary.

Dean Allan, deputy mayor of Carstairs, said the twister passed between Didsbury and Carstairs, damaging 12 homes.

"A couple of them were completely destroyed. There's no deaths just some minor injuries, luckily," Allan said, adding some livestock werealso lost.

"All in all, everything went well, or as good as can be for something like that."

The tornado prompted an Alberta Emergency Alert on Saturday afternoonaffecting the towns ofDidsbury, OldsandCarstairs. By 2:45 p.m. that alert had been cancelled.

RCMP had initially told media that injuries had been reported in the area, but in a subsequent update, policesaid while numerous homes were damaged,"it does not appear" that anyone was hurt.

Carstairs fire chief Jordan Schaffer said five homes were completely destroyed, including one where rescuers had to extricate a woman from her basement.

"Digging through debris, we were able to get her out without a scratch," Schaffer said.

"The house was 100 per cent gone."

WATCH | A tornado in central Alberta was seen from the highway

Tornado spotted by family in central Alberta

1 year ago

Duration 0:15

Deborah Bradbury-Dawe, who shared this video with CBC News, said her family was driving from Calgary to Edmonton when they had to stop due to the tornado near Carstairs, Alta.

Cheryl Beck, a resident of Carstairs, was having lunch in the nearby town of Olds when the province's emergency alert came in. She immediately left and headed home, but when she saw where the tornado was, she and her friend went west instead.

On thatroute home she encounteredsweeping damageabout a kilometrenorth of Carstairs.

"I was just thinking like the trees, the trees that were down were huge and they just looked like someone broke them up like matchsticks there was bales turned over, vehicles, likefarm vehicles turned over, and clearly the housejust severely damaged," she said.

"It was really devastating."

Shortly after the emergency alert ended, Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills MLANathan Cooper wrote on Twitterthat "multiple families have been impacted by this storm."

The total number of people affected, however, is not yet known.