25th Anniversary of Black Friday today

[dodgeguy]

Where were ya, and what do you remember?

I was 11 at the time, and we lived 25 minutes east of Rocky MTN HSE. Obviously wasn't in Edmonton, but I do remember one of the worst storm we ever had go past, heavy rain, HUGE hail, and very strong winds. Even lasted 45 minutes or so. Then a few hours later turned on the news and there was a tornado that hit Edmonton, and destroyed everything in it's path. I remember that it was unbelievable that a tornado was in Alberta!

 

[northern bear]

Was 13 then on the farm north of Sangudo. Don't really remember the storm to much, just hearing about it on the radio and then watching the news on ITV (Global) that evening. My wife lived in Edmonton at that time and vividly recalls certain parts of it.

 

[Murminator]

Lived in small town sask, sister and brother-in-law lived at evergreen I can remember seeing pics on the news and my mom looking up my sisters adress to see if that was the trailer parked they lived in. Turned out it was so my mom kept trying to phone then it was about 3 in the morning when my sister phoned to say they were ok. Turns out they were not at home they trailer 3 doors down from they was destroyed and killed a set of twins that used to walk their dogs but there trailer had massive hail and water damaged and the weirdest part of it all was on their deck was a bar-b-que that had 2 empty 2 liter plasic bottles on the bottom shelf they didn't even blow over

 

[the_real_wild1]

Worked at a shop in the west end as a summer job. The shop had huge doors as it was a equipment dealer and service dept. The door started shaking bigtime around 3pm. Went home at 3:30 with nasty clouds all around. When I got home I got out of the car and the clouds above me where rolling and had an ominous green color. They were so low to the ground it was unreal. Went inside and watched the warning on tv in the lower level of the house. To this day I have never seen clouds like that but always look for them when we get a big storm come through. Seems to be alot of those this summer.

 

[btcowboy]

I was 13 and living in Red Deer at the time. Was fishing with some friends when the a storm came up like I had never seen. Pretty wicked colors and looked just massive. Went home like others have said and watched on the news that Edmonton got hit with a tornado. My grandmother lives in Edmonton at the time in downtown and she said it was a frightening experience.

 

[Summitric]

lived in small town sask, sister and brother-in-law lived at evergreen i can remember seeing pics on the news and my mom looking up my sisters adress to see if that was the trailer parked they lived in. Turned out it was so my mom kept trying to phone then it was about 3 in the morning when my sister phoned to say they were ok. Turns out they were not at home they trailer 3 doors down from they was destroyed and killed a set of twins that used to walk their dogs but there trailer had massive hail and water damaged and the weirdest part of it all was on their deck was a bar-b-que that had 2 empty 2 liter plasic bottles on the bottom shelf they didn't even blow over

i know the lady, who's whole family was killed in the disaster........ Husband, daughter and twins......... R.i.p. ........... Chin-up, and keep plugging away, arlean.........

 

[snopro]

Remember hearing about it on the radio the next morning on the way to a golf tournament. Could not believe the video and pics when I saw them. Canada's 2nd worst tornado. RIP.

 

[Trashy]

I was 19 and working on a stucco crew, that was the hottest week ever prior to the tornado. We were in spruce grove when the storm came upon us, it started rain and hail so fast. That we had to drive back to Edm with a mixer still full of mudd, we had a 75 gm 3 ton that was governed at 80 but we were doing a buck ten heading back in and not touching the gas. Got back to the shop in the westend. The rain, wind and hailed stopped, we washed out the mixer and within 5 mins of dead calm. All hell broke loose!!! I'll never forget that day/week. Then seeing the aftermath the next day

 

[Bogger]

The daughter was one of arlene's (my wife) best friends , still a rough time for my wife, her family was fine but she knew many of the 27 deceased and still has contact with many of the evergreen residents from that time. thier trailer was right in the path but because they dissobeyed the park rules and piled there adition thier trailer remained standing while all the others around were gone.

i know the lady, who's whole family was killed in the disaster........ Husband, daughter and twins......... R.i.p. ........... Chin-up, and keep plugging away, arlean.........

I was still living in the east and didn't even know about it until I moved out here.

 

[morerpmfred]

Just had lunch with brothers and sisters. We where all headed out on road trips. We left twenty minutes before tornado hit. One sister was driving to ont. Other to Utah other brother leaving for Peace river for a wedding and me back to Yellowknife. Sister picked up a friend in evergreen 15 minutes before it started and basically drove south keeping 10 to 5 minutes ahead of it picking friends up on her road trip. She got lucky. Some of her friends lost family. As for me drove threw the worst rain storm driving north through Fox creek. Doing ten miles an hour on the highway and could not see the yellow line or the ditch or oncoming traffic. To dangourous to stop.
Got to peace river 8 hours later to fill up with gas. The gas jockey says was,int that a storm. Up. Found put the next day what happened.

 

[TROLLCAT]

I was working at Raven Box Liners southside when it hit Hail Stones the size of softballs 5-6 smaller hailstones stuck together to make a softball size one , moved to BC shortly after that .

 

[cokecrazed007]

I was 13 when it happened. We were on holidays at the time and friends told us about what had happened, and I couldn't believe it. The twister touched down 4 miles west of our farm near Beaumont, moved a friends house on the foundation by a couple of inchs and destroyed other one close by.