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Brief but strong storm rips through city

A short but powerful storm ripped through the Grand Forks area on Wednesday night (July 23) bringing with it a fair amount of destruction.
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75th Avenue in Grand Forks was partially blocked by broken tree branches. City public works crews were quickly on the scene cleaning debris off the road.

A short but powerful storm ripped through the Grand Forks area on Wednesday night (July 23) bringing with it a fair amount of destruction.

In a press release, Dale Heriot, fire chief, Grand Forks Fire Rescue, said the department responded to eight calls during the storm.

“Damage from the storm resulted in two trees on houses, one tree on a vehicle, and trees that had fallen on utility lines, as well as tree branched blocking roads and driveways,” he said.

Roger Huston, manager of operations for the city, said his crews were busy much of night clearing trees and debris from city roads.

“We got the call last night after the storm event,” he said. “We cleared out the main roads to get them passable. Most of our focus was in the downtown area on 75th Street in between 2nd and 6th. There were large trees, tree branches and limbs that came down onto the road so the crew was out clearing that off.”

Huston said that crews were out this morning (July 24) tackling the other debris that wasn’t as urgent.

“We’re at City Park, the campground and the side streets,” he said. “We were at Central Avenue pulling out some of the smaller stuff, chipping it up and making it look good.”

Huston said we is unaware of any injuries caused by the storm although he does say there have been some damaged vehicles.

“Last night on 75th we did see a vehicle on the side of the road that took one of the limbs from a tree right through the windshield,” he said. “We’ve heard about other personal property issues and boats on land (being hit as well).”

A spokesperson from FortisBC said that 500 customers from throughout the Boundary were without power including some west of the city.