More help needed to clean up Didsbury tornado aftermath

Organizers of the cleanup from the July 1 tornado near Didsbury, are calling for more aid from volunteers.

Lance Douglas is helping to co-ordinate the effort.

He says some farms have been completely cleared of debris, but others still need work.

“They can’t use those fields, they can’t bring cattle into them, they can’t drive around in them because there’s still a lot of debris that needs to be picked up and just put into piles and then taken out of there and brought up out of the coulees,” said Douglas.

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Douglas says volunteers have done a great job of helping to clean so far, but their numbers have dropped off since the day after the twister touched down.

He adds the clean-up has included many moving parts.

“Just making sure that there’s skid steers, there’s trucks, there’s tractors, there’s large dumpsters, there’s food every morning and every afternoon, making sure that people are bringing coffee and donuts and lunches and in some places, dinners,” said Douglas. “Also making sure that there’s porta-a-potties, because a lot of these families coming out, it’s not kind of them to have to go find a bush and in a lot of the places there’s no bushes left.”

He adds that the remaining cleanup could take a single week or possibly months, depending on how many volunteers come out to help.

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• Tornado north of Calgary was one of most powerful in Alberta history: researchers

• Central Alberta woman estimates 100 volunteers came to clean up after tornado destroys home

Douglas says even 30 minutes of volunteering time would be greatly appreciated.

According to the Northern Tornadoes Project, the Canada Day tornado was an F4 and damaged 12 homes.

Of those, three were destroyed while another four are no longer habitable.