Post by @chad@mstdn.ca

2026-10-19 09:41 UTC

I was in Calgary when these winds hit, but it took out tens out thousands of homes' power in Edmonton, including the #yeg airport. I wasn't there to experience it but the last time we experienced a wind shelf as damaging like this was in 2009 when the Big Valley Jamboree stage flipped a killed a concertgoer. Everyone remembers where they were when that happened, much like Black Friday. These weather events don't happen often, but Environment Canada should have saw this coming. Considering how reactive they have been recently, I wonder if this is on CAF leadership. Listening to the Major-General, I understand it's the military, and there's a culture, but gosh, I wonder if that culture is pushing the limit too far. https://www.cpac.ca/headline-politics/episode/ministers-and-caf-officials-provide-update-on-cfb-wainwright--october-18-2026?id=e2d95f33-bb9e-49f5-95a3-bf8eaf0ec561

Replies (2)

@chad@mstdn.ca 2026-10-19 09:56

We saw the wait times at the U of A (WMC) and Royal Alex drop to 30 minutes for the first time in literally years because they were turning away emergency patients to other facilities. It's documented here: https://erwaits.popab.ca/ This was only because they stopped admitting patients in anticipation of this inbound mass casualty. It begs the question: what would have happened if an apartment fire in Queen Mary Park had happened at the same time? Would the Royal Alex have had the capacity to take that on too? What if there was a gas leak? What if a bus was struck like in Calgary this week? Would we have had the capacity to take on this on top of the horrific tragedy at CFB Wainwright? This is why hospitals should NOT be running at 100%.

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@Chigaze@cosocial.ca 2026-10-19 13:22

@chad@mstdn.ca Environment Canada did issue a wind warning for Edmonton around 1pm but I don’t know if they issued anything similar for Wainwright.

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