1 dead, several injured in Alberta tent collaps

One  individual  became  killed and others  had been  harm  while  an  occasion  tent collapsed on  masses  of  human beings  north Edmonton on Wednesday.

Severe  climate  brought on  the tent to  disintegrate  round  five :30 p.m. at Tu Viện Tây Thiên,  additionally  referred to as  the Westlock Meditation Center, run  via way of means of  the Edmonton Buddhist Research Institute, south of Westlock, RCMP say.




Mounties did  now no longer  understand  the entire  range  of  human beings  injured,  handiest  that  numerous  had been  taken to  nearby  hospitals  via way of means of  EMS.


Yellow tape surrounds a collapsed tent at Tu Viện Tây Thiên,  additionally  referred to as  the Westlock Meditation Center, north of Busby and south of Westlock, on Aug. 1, 2024. One  individual  became  killed and  numerous  others  had been  injured  while  the tent collapsed the  preceding  afternoon.

The  individual  who died  became  now no longer  from Canada  however  certainly considered one among  four hundred  site visitors  from  round  the arena  who  had been  attending a retreat  beginning  Thursday, a centre spokesperson  advised  .

Westlock  became  hit  via way of means of  a "straight-line wind  occasion ," high-  pace  winds produced  throughout  a  excessive  thunderstorm, Alysa Pederson with Environment and Climate Change Canada  advised  TV News Edmonton.

"The  top  lifestyles  of that  hurricane  became  basically  five  p.m. to  approximately  6:30 p.m.  because it  moved  via  north of Edmonton," Pederson  stated . "The wind  harm  is  probably  someplace  in that  eighty  to  ninety  or  eighty  to  a hundred  km/h as what  we'd  count on  of that  hurricane ."

The retreat
Attendees  stay  and pray as Buddhist  clergymen  and nuns,  practising  monasticism, for 10 days  throughout  the retreat.

The spokesperson  stated  the retreat  could  maintain  with a  changed  time table  and people  who  had been  injured  could  be cared for  on the  centre  as soon as  they're  launched  from hospital.


Yellow tape surrounds a collapsed tent at Tu Viện Tây Thiên,  additionally  referred to as  the Westlock Meditation Center, north of Busby and south of Westlock, on Aug. 1, 2024. One  individual  became  killed and  numerous  others  had been  injured  while  the tent collapsed the  preceding  afternoon.

Westlock County's reeve, Christine Wiese,  known as  the incident tragic and  presented  condolences to the  own circle of relatives  of the  individual  killed and all others affected.

"To the  citizens  of Westlock County, and  in particular  to the  proprietor  and  workforce  of the Westlock Meditation Center, we  proportion  to your  grief and sorrow. This incident has deeply impacted our  network  and we stand  collectively  in mourning and support."

Both RCMP and Occupational Health and Safety are investigating the tent's  disintegrate .

Thursday morning,  approximately  1,000  citizens  withinside the  surrounding rural  place  did  now no longer  have  electricity  after it went out Wednesday afternoon or evening. In the Legal  place , crews  had been  making "emergency repairs," Fortis Alberta  stated  on its website. Heavy winds  had been  indexed  because the  cause  for  at the least  one outage  withinside the  Gibbons  place  to the east. Power  became  predicted  to return back  returned  on line  among  1  and three  p.m., Fortis estimated.

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