Youngstown Communiqué, Apr. 1, 2021

Reported by Robert Blagen

I wish to send my condolences out to the family and friends of Bernie Olds who passed away recently. Bernie, a long time friend of mine, formerly from the Cereal area, was currently residing at the Hanna extended care.

I also would like to extend my sympathies to the family and friends of Barb Cheney who has passed away. Barb was an avid curler in her younger years. I remember participating in some of the same bonspiels in town as she did, as well as some bonspiels in the surrounding areas. Barb also resided at the Hanna extended care. I hope everyone was able to manage okay during the power outage and high winds as the spring storm we were subjected to last week moved through the province. Our power outage here in town lasted somewhere around the 8 hour time frame, going out around 4:30-5:00 in the morning after numerous power bumps. It did not come back on until around 1:00 pm in the afternoon. I have heard that other areas around the region were still out of power later on that evening and some even lasting as long as up to 38 hours. We are all very fortunate, and should be thankful, that despite the high winds, the temperatures were not any colder than they were and we did not get all that much snow. I have not heard of too much in the way of damages happening in our area although there was some siding torn loose and blowing off of some building, as well as some items being moved or blown around, including BBQ’s, Smokers, and even an instance of a Cargo Trailer being turned and rolling a fair distance, luckily being caught up on curb, thankfully stopping it’s progress towards running into someone home. What little snow we had, was seen to have created quite the drifts in some places in the area, while bare ground showed in others. I don’t know if it is safe to say we are done with the unsettled weather or not. It is Alberta, after all!