Repairs begin at the Calgary International Airport on Aug. 6.Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press
The rat-a-tat of hail was echoing through the terminal as Quinn White made her way to a gate at the Calgary International Airport on Monday evening.
As she rounded a corner, there was a more disconcerting sound: running water.
White posted a video to social media showing water raining from the ceiling and what appears to be sodden pieces of ceiling tile in a puddle by a boarding gate.
“There were pieces of ceiling tile, kind of drywall ceiling tile, that were quite literally falling and hitting the ground,” she said Tuesday from Calgary, where she was stranded and trying to get home to Campbell River, B.C. She was en route from Chicago after going to the Lollapalooza music festival.
“I was talking to a young girl who said she could feel dripping on her head, and she stood up. And as she stood up, the piece of the ceiling fell where she was sitting. So she was really lucky to get out of the way in time.”
Part of the domestic terminal building at the airport remained closed Tuesday due to water damage from hail and heavy rain that pummelled the area a day earlier. But the airport said flights were still operating out of other gates.
“We continue to assess damage and thank everyone for their patience and co-operation as we adapt operations. A huge thank you to the operations staff who responded quickly to ensure impacted areas were evacuated,” the airport said in a social media post.
WestJet said in a statement that planes affected by the storm were undergoing inspections and maintenance, “with some aircraft requiring more maintenance due to various levels of hail damage.”
The airline said more than 80 of its flights in and out of Calgary were cancelled on Tuesday, and that further delays and cancellations may be required.
White said there were about 100 people standing around the terminal wondering what to do and it took about half an hour before they got any instruction.
“At one point, the fire alarm started going off, so we were wondering if we were going to get evacuated,” said White.
“But even then, when you would ask staff, who were standing around essentially watching it happen with us, all they would say is, ‘We don’t know.”’
Eventually, White says someone told travellers to head to another gate. But her B.C.-bound flight was cancelled due to the weather within 20 minutes of its scheduled departure. She was booked on another one for Tuesday night.
In the meantime, White said she had to pay out-of-pocket for a hotel.
The airport said in a media release later Tuesday that guest experience teams and White Hat Volunteers – people clad in cowboy hats and red vests and whose mission is to show “warm western hospitality” – were answering questions, providing directions, and handing out water and snacks to travellers whose plans were disrupted.
Environment Canada issued a severe thunderstorm warning for parts of south-central Alberta late Monday. The weather agency warned of powerful wind gusts, baseball-sized hail and torrential rain.
Monday’s torrent ranks among the top three most impressive storms that Brittany Kennedy, a storm chaser with the Canadian division of a group called Team Dominator, has experienced in her seven-year career.
She and other chasers perched on a hill at Cochrane, northwest of Calgary, as the storm gathered.
“The rotation was spectacular and the hail core was incredible. So we were waiting for a tornado to drop,” she said. There were no reports of a tornado, but it was a formidable storm nonetheless, she added.
The chasers dispersed and Kennedy said she headed south toward Calgary in her Mazda 3, successfully dodging hailstones along the way.
“The further east I went, I noticed that more houses were missing pieces of siding,” she said.
She also saw cars with dents and broken windows, piles of hail and lakes of water on the road. Some hailstones were bigger than golf balls where she was, she said, but she suspects there were even bigger chunks farther east.
“There were car accidents, because once you’re driving on hail, it’s like ice. So if you don’t slow down, you’ll drive all over the place,” she said.
Monday’s storm aside, it’s been a quiet few months, said Kennedy.
“This is kind of like the big one of the summer.”
The Insurance Bureau of Canada said in a news release Tuesday that hailstorms and other natural disasters are becoming more frequent and severe, especially in Alberta.
“At this point in time, it is still too early to provide an accurate picture in terms of insured loss estimates for this severe weather event, but our thoughts are with all those that have been impacted,” bureau vice-president Aaron Sutherland said.
Insured losses from hail damage have totalled nearly $3-billion between 2019 and 2023, the bureau said. A June 2020 Calgary storm resulted in some 70,000 claims and more than $1.3-billion in insured damage.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith wrote on social media that she was saddened by the damage and linked to the insurance bureau’s news release.
“Hopefully, everyone can have their damage assessed and repaired in a timely manner,” she said.
“The insurance industry is deploying additional resources to respond to their customers and get life back to normal.”