A “river of ice” – Cardston hit with brief but intense hail storm Monday

Jul 6, 2021 | 12:05 PM

CARDSTON, AB – Residents and business owners in Cardston are dealing with the aftermath of a severe hail storm.

Public Works Foreman at the Town of Cardston LeNark Duce says the first hailstone dropped around 8:00 pm and, thankfully, the storm only lasted about 20 minutes.

“The hail knocked so much debris into the streets and the water was rushing – it plugged all the storm drains and so they couldn’t even start to keep up. It was so much water to start with that it would’ve been hard to keep up with anyways.”

Water and hail flowed throughout the town, flooding numerous homes and businesses.

Another town employee described the scene along Main Street as a “river of ice.”

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Duce said the hail was pea-sized. At the time that we spoke to him, he had yet to see any significant damages to the exteriors of buildings or vehicles.

Crops and gardens throughout the community were heavily impacted.

Other areas outside of Cardston, such as Hillspring, reportedly had larger chunks of hail.

The good news, says Duce, is that the storm was short-lived, and if it had gone on for much longer, there would have been significant issues to deal with.

“Things were maxed out, but as far as I know, everything was able to keep things from being a disaster, but it was close because we had all the pumps going and it was still kind of maxed out.”

He adds that things in the town have improved now but there are still several snowbanks and property owners are trying to manage any flooding.

by David Opinko