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Black Friday July 31 1987

Kuala Lumpur Malaysia Sat Aug 1, 9 AM. I answered the phone in my hotel room. The caller was another Edmontonian I had met briefly the night before, he was also in KL on business. Unfortunately I can’t remember his name or the Company he represented. His first words were, “Did you here the news from Edmonton?”. “No I responded what happened?. “There was a tornado and apparently the city has suffered severe damage. Specially in the North East. Communication is sporadic”, he said.  I lived in Clareview in the NE quadrant My immediate reaction was OMG my family, I have to try find out if they were OK.

I was unable to make immediate contact. In was scheduled to leave for Bangkok so I decided to head to the airport hoping that I would be able to get some information on arrival at my hotel.  On the 2 hour flight my mind was going through  hua number of scenarios, first was my family second was our house.  We were preparing to relocate to Calgary and while in KL I had received an offer on the house via fax, I had signed the papers and faxed them back to Edmonton along with the final papers on a house we had purchased in Calgary. What a mess that would be if the house was damaged or destroyed.

On arrival in Bangkok One of my first sights was the Bangkok Post, and there on the front page was a picture and an article about the destruction of Edmonton. I was filled with dread aas the hotel car made its way to my destination in downtown Bangkok.

As soon as I checked in I went to my room and with trepidation called home.  Much to my relief my wife answered and after a few frantic questions  she related the events to me. She was at work downtown and stayed in place until the storm was over, my daughter Terri had had a sleep over at a friends and was fine, my son Corey had gathered our cat, a radio and a few supplies and hid out in a cold room I had built in the basement. I was relieved that they were all safe and the giant weight of worry and stress disappeared.  Although houses three blocks from our place had lost roofs and suffered damage and a trailer park less than a mile away was destroyed our place was unscathed.

After two days of meetings and presentations I headed back to Edmonton.  On the way from the airport home I was stunned by the damage I observed in the east side industrial area.

After a few Days of rest we started preparation of our move at the end of the month.