Alberta RV park suffers major damage from ice jam
Dozens of RVs were damaged, with some missing altogether, though no injuries were reported.
An Alberta RV park has suffered serious damage from an ice jam on the Red Deer River. The park is located just off Highway 21, west of Stettler.
The manager of River Creek RV Park, Andre Mercier, says dozens of RVs were damaged as the jam sent flood waters and chunks of ice, some a metre thick, through the property, with some RVs even being tipped over.
"This is a hundred times worse than I've ever seen," Mercier says. "On Monday morning when I came in here, I almost thought a tornado went through here, that's how bad it looked."
Weather Network reporter Kyle Brittain, who was at the scene Thursday, says at least three RVs are missing, likely carried away by the floodwaters.
As of Thursday morning, there was still some flooding and large ice chunks littering the park. No injuries have been reported.
Ice jams can occur anytime from early winter to late spring depending upon changes in temperature, which can cause alternate freezing and melting of water surfaces. Rather than a gradual breakup and melt, the melting process across some of central and northern Alberta's rivers has been sped up somewhat by several days of warmer temperatures.