Edmonton Tornado - Post-disaster Response

Post-disaster Response

While municipal emergency agencies, fire departments, ambulance and police were responding, Canada's Department of National Defence placed helicopters and ambulances on standby at the Canadian Forces Base, Edmonton, and provided reconnaissance flights for the City of Edmonton and the deputy prime minister.

At the onset of the storm Emergency Preparedness Canada established contact with the Government of Alberta Emergency Response Centre. EPC established a liaison office at the response centre at approximately 1800 hours that same day.

As emergency personnel responded to the industrial area, potential threats from dangerous goods came to light. Alberta's Compliance Information Centre dispatched its dangerous goods inspectors and the provincial environmental response team to the area.

The emergent post-disaster response period lasted for approximately three weeks including immediate disaster assistance for victims. At the end of August 1987 details of the overall damage costs were gathered and the Government of Alberta announced an extensive disaster recovery program with the assistance of the Government of Canada.

The Emergency Public Warning System, later replaced by Alberta Emergency Alert, was developed as a result of the 1987 tornado disaster. The warning system breaks into private and public broadcasts on radio, television and cable systems. It alerts the public for all disaster hazards that threaten to strike with little or no warning. The warning system is also used for issuing Amber Alerts.

The tornado had also resulted in the first implementation of the Doppler weather radar concept in Canada in the early 1990s. Edmonton's Carvel radar was one of only three Dopplers to exist in Canada at the time. It later became part of the Canadian weather radar network, which was Dopplerized starting in 1998.