Red Deer council praised the work of city staff at Monday night's meeting after hearing its report on the city's response to the June 20 windstorm.

Council heard that the Emergency Operations Centre was activated, with staff put in place within 25 mintues.

Mayor Tara Veer commended the speed at which workers mobilized to respond to calls to downed trees and power lines.

The report from staff describes it as a "borderless response," where RCMP, emergency services, parks, public works, and ELP (electric, light and power) combined resources leading to an efficient response.

There were no injuries to front-line staff.

Three people suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

Citizens were also extolled for how they weathered the storm, offering help to one another over social media.

"One of the greatest news stories from that is how responsive our community was in terms of emergency preparedness, in terms of acting upon formal communications that came from our daily briefings and in terms of helping out our fellow Red Deerians," Veer said.

The city has spent about $2.6 million on response and recovery so far. The mayor said she is confident the province will reimburse the full amount through its Disaster Recovery Program.

"That generally is the standard throughout the province of Alberta when there is a natural disaster," she said.

Veer said the city is also preparing itself for the next severe weather event.

"As we look at our infrastructure planning, we're trying to build resiliency into our capital plan," she said.

"For example, dealing with storm water, having capacity in power lines, those are all how we protect against future disasters."

 Statistics

• 111 km/h winds recorded in the City of Red Deer

• 15,000 properties without power for varying lengths of time

• More than 3,000 (as many as 5,000) trees down in natural areas of the park system

• 600 city-owned trees that will require stump removal

• 3,636 calls received by the call centre

• 12 times the average number of 9-1-1 calls were received during initial response phase

• 38 damaged power poles requiring removal and replacement

• More than 3,500 metres of downed power lines

• 700 city staff involved in supporting windstorm response and recovery

• $30 million in insurance claims with this number expected to rise, according to Insurance Bureau of Canada