July 31, 1987 became known as Black Friday to Edmontonians, the worst day in the history of the city. 27 people were killed when a powerful and devastating tornado ripped through eastern Edmonton and parts of Strathcona County. The tornado peaked at F4 on the Fujita scale, with maximum winds of more than 400 kilometres an hour. It was on the ground, killing, injuring and destroying for just over an hour, travelling more than 30 kilometres before it was done.
Aftermath of Black Friday tornado that touched down near Beaumont, east Edmonton and Strathcona County, July 31, 1987. (Image courtesy of City of Edmonton)
The front page of the Edmonton Journal on August 1, 1987.
Emergency responders in the wreckage left by a tornado that touched down near Beaumont, east Edmonton and Strathcona County, July 31, 1987. (Image courtesy of City of Edmonton)
A story about baby Kristen was published in the Edmonton Journal on Saturday, July 30, 1988, on page 92.
It all started just before noon that day when a line of thunderstorms formed in the foothills of southern Alberta. From there, these thunderstorms moved north, and at 1:40 p.m. a severe weather watch was issued for the Edmonton area. Just before 3 p.m., a call came into the weather office about a “rope-like funnel” spotted near Leduc, south of Edmonton. Shortly thereafter, a tornado warning was issued.
The supercell that created the funnel near Leduc was now on its way north. First, it hit southeast Mill Woods. Jannie Edwards and her family were in their condo overlooking Michaels Park, in Millbourne, waiting for the keys for the new house they were moving into that day. “There had been a supernatural stillness, and the sky had kind of a green tinge,” Edwards remembers. “There is a playground in Michaels Park that we could see, and I remember thinking, that’s weird, the playground was usually full of kids and there was not one kid there.”
As Edwards’ family stood at the window, they saw something they will never forget: “We saw the tornado. We saw the funnel cloud off to the southeast of us. I remember saying… that can’t be a tornado, we’re too far north for that. Tornadoes happen in Kansas and Tennessee and Georgia.”
“It was a bizarre experience to see it rise up and touch down, rise up and touchdown. And the capriciousness of where it touched down,” Edwards continues. “Then the power went out… and then the softball-sized hailstones started pummeling down on us. I had never seen hail the size of softballs… it was quite incredible.”
“When we actually drove down that corridor later and saw the incredible power… that it had lifted and twisted steel girders, lifted and twisted machinery and cars. We were pretty awed by the power of that force.”
More than 30 homes were damaged in Mill Woods and 15 to 20 people were injured in collapsed buildings and damaged vehicles. But the tornado was only getting started.
From Mill Woods, it moved on to the major industrial area in east Edmonton, Refinery Row. The tornado picked up and tossed several large oil tanks and trailers, and destroyed several industrial buildings. 12 of the tornado’s total 27 fatalities were in that industrial area.
After crossing the Sherwood Park freeway, the tornado hit Clareview, destroying 37 homes, causing natural gas leaks and injuring 10 people.
But the worst was still to come. The tornado saved that for the Evergreen Mobile Home Park. That is where it destroyed 170 mobile homes and killed 15 people. Many others were injured. The tornado ended five kilometres northeast of the mobile home park.
As is often the case in these kinds of tragedies, there was a story of miraculous survival. Baby Kristen, a week old infant, was torn from her grandfather’s arms at the Evergreen Mobile Home Park and thrown a hundred meters. Somehow, she was found alive. Bill Clark, a police officer, rushed the baby to hospital, where she was reunited with her mother, Monique Gregoire. Kristen had brain swelling and lung damage, but she pulled through. An article in the July 30, 1988 Edmonton Journal tells their incredible story.
Years after the tornado, in the early 2000s Jannie Edwards says she was teaching a creative writing class at a high school when one of the students told the class she had been that baby. “It was obviously a deeply profound event in her life,” Edwards said.
It was a deeply profound event for many others too. The tornado tragedy led to some important changes in how people are warned of major storms and other rapidly developing dangers. The Emergency Public Warning System (EPWS) was developed and implemented in 1992. The Alberta Emergency Alert website describes it as “the first rapid warning system of its kind to use media outlets to broadcast critical life-saving information directly to the public.”
A memorial to the 27 people killed on Black Friday can be found in Hermitage Park, in northeast Edmonton.
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