Okotoks is scrambling to clean up a mess left by Mother Nature after a heap of snow blanketed the foothills last night. Trees have cracked under the heavy snow on the morning of Sept. 10, leaving large branches down throughout much of the town, blocking roadways and knocking down power lines. Gordon White, Okotoks urban forester, said the damage is the worst he's seen since 2007, and the Town's crews are hard at work getting everything cleaned up. “Right now we're just prioritizing on stuff that's hazardous or threatening property or people and roadways,” he said. “It could take weeks to clean up all this storm damage and then years to replace what we're probably going to have to remove.” Right now, the Town is just asking residents to keep themselves safe. “Look for hazards like power lines, and with small trees if you can shake the snow off of them that would be good, and large trees you can't do much, just make sure you don't put yourself at risk by getting underneath the trees because stuff is failing as we speak,” White said. “If you don't have to park under a tree, don't.” If you do see Town trees that have fallen, White said to call Open Spaces at 938-8958 for assistance. If one of your own trees has fallen, White said unfortunately the only option is to call an arborist to assist you, though he expects the waitlist will be long. The other big issue is the trees taking out power lines, which has caused outages and fires in town. Okotoks deputy fire chief Dwight Seymour said the department had responded to seven calls as of 11 a.m. “We have been busy since about five this morning,” Seymour said. “Most of them due are due to trees being knocked down on power lines. We have also had a couple of MVCs (motor vehicle collisions).” Seymour said if residents see trees are on power lines are a downed power line to phone 911. “That will get us out there,” he said. “If there are any power lines down, stay away from them.” Seymour also urged people to stay away from any trees on power lines. “The power can actually end up going through the trees and with all the moisture it can actually charge fences and an area around them,” he said. FortisAlberta spokesperson Jennifer MacGowan said as of 11 a.m. it has been able to restore power to most of Okotoks, but said there are still about 600 customers in the MD of Foothills without power. “There are several trees on lines in the area, we have technicians out doing triage on lines that are down and we've requested extra technicians from Lethbridge.” If you do spot a downed power line or a tree causing problems to a line, Fortis is requesting that you stay 10 metres away from the line, and you can also call their service number 310-WIRE (9473) to for assistance.
