Canada Twister Toll Put at 25; Search Goes On

Rescuers searched for survivors in shattered homes and factories Saturday after the deadliest tornado to hit Canada in 75 years devastated parts of Edmonton and killed at least 25 people.

About 200 others were injured in Friday afternoon’s twister.

Alberta provincial medical examiner Dr. John Butt said 25 people were killed. There had been some confusion over casualties because of double-counting in the wake of the devastation. Earlier, the city’s emergency planning officer, Bruce Wilson, said 27 people were confirmed dead and 200 hurt, and police spokeswoman Joy-Lynn Dorash put the fatality count at 35.

Hardest hit was the Evergreen trailer park on the city’s northeastern edge, where 200 mobile homes were demolished, 150 were damaged and at least 13 people were killed, Wilson said.

Witnesses said the pillar of whirling black air was two blocks wide as it smashed its way northeast across the city and parts of adjacent Strathcona County.

A state of emergency was declared as rescuers searched collapsed houses, warehouses and overturned cars for survivors. Police used dog teams to comb the wreckage for signs of life.

Guard Against Looting

Police Chief Leroy Chahley said extra patrols were sent to devastated areas after looting was reported.

Premier Donald Getty of Alberta province told reporters at a command post in a devastated industrial area: “There’s no doubt about it, we’ve been badly hurt. One thing is, the rescue operations are functioning extremely well.”

The twister leveled an entire industrial park, tossing tractor-trailer trucks like toys and picking up cars as if they were plastic models.

Reporters said the twisters slammed cattle to their deaths on farms outside the city. Broken gas mains caused several fires, power lines were cut and some streets flooded by torrential rain and grapefruit-size hail.

Weather officials had forecast thunderstorms in this normally dry western city of 530,000 people, but had only very short notice of the tornadoes. Many families took shelter in their cellars and emerged to find the roofs of their houses gone.

It was the deadliest tornado in Canada since 1912, when 38 people died in a twister that hit Regina in Saskatchewan province. Hurricane Hazel left 83 dead in the Toronto area in October, 1954.