Columbia Valley residents were battered by another wind storm while clean-up from a more intense storm last month is still underway.
Invermere Mayor Al Miller says he is thankful the storm on Sept. 25 was not as strong as the first one just over a month ago.
“We certainly had a lot less damage this time, thankfully. People are still trying to recover from the last wind storm,” said Miller.
“I think it made a lot of people nervous when we were warned about more wind.”
The community suffered some damage during the latest storm.
“Trees came down on the rooves of one or two residences. In particular, a tree put a substantial hole in the roof of one of them,’ said Miller.
“We had a few other trees down around Invermere with roads blocked and whatnot. At least we weren’t challenged with the power outages and things like that.”
Miller says Wednesday’s storm was short but was still enough to have an impact.
“Seeing the strength of the wind blowing around made me very concerned. It hit hard, but it ended just as quickly,” said Miller.
The storm caused some damage to the Invermere Transfer Station, temporarily closing the site.
“We had two of our collection buildings blown right over the fence and across the road. Thankfully nobody was driving there at the time,” said Miller.
“We also had the fence bent and gate area broken. They’re trying to get everything back into working order.”
Miller says he has never experienced weather like this in Invermere.
“These last two wind storms have probably been the strongest winds that I have ever seen,” said Miller.
“Things have obviously changed a bit and we’ve been getting some big storms rolling through.”
Miller says having an early alert is a large part of emergency preparation.
“The emergency services and Regional District were on it. They provided a nice early warning that there were wind storms coming and I believe most people were prepared because of it,” said Miller.
“When you know something is going to happen, you can take your boat out of the lake, pick up any loose garbage, and make sure containers or anything around your home is tucked away. After that, stay inside and wait it out.”
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