WESTLOCK — Visitors and nearby residents are describing the Weslock Meditation Center (Tu Vien Tay Thien) near Busby, as a popular venue that draws thousands of people every year, especially during the summer for an annual multi-day meditation event.
One man, Travis Law from Edmonton was at the site Wednesday afternoon, July 31, shortly after a large tent structure collapsed. One person has died, and dozens have been injured after a structure collapse at Westlock Meditation Centre near Busby. Dozens of emergency personnel vehicles from surrounding areas had responded after Westlock RCMP got a call about the incident around 5:27 p.m. on Wednesday.
Law was there to drop off his sister, who was planning to attend the 11-day meditation session, starting Aug. 1. It’s an event that she has been to for the past several years.
He said he was saddened to learn of the events and pointed out they were expected to arrive around 2 p.m. that afternoon but were delayed and then further delayed by the storm that hit the region and caused the structure to collapse. Dozens were injured in the collapse and one person died.
“That could have been my sister in the tent,” said Law.
A nearby neighbour, who wished to remain anonymous, said the mediation event held every summer is one of the largest gatherings held there, with people coming from around the globe.
“People from across the world come for this event. It’s (always) this coming weekend (in August) — there are busloads and busloads of people that always come,” she said, adding it’s the event of the year for the center. “People come from the states and across Canada. They (also) hold youth camps that run there in the summertime.”
Many many injured
“There were many, many people injured,” said Cpl. Troy Savinkoff Public Information Officer for Alberta RCMP Media Group.
“We have quite a few people that received a varied amount of injuries,” he added. “Many with just minor bruises, more than 50 had minor injuries, but there were several that received serious injuries. I don’t have the exact numbers yet. People were taken to hospitals with EMS and some in personal vehicles. Several people have serious injuries.”
Witnesses have said there were about 200 people in the tent structure at the time.
“I heard a large number similar to that,” said Savinkoff. “We have investigators on site. We will get a number once we are further into this investigation.”
Mike Ellis, Alberta Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Services, tweeted that the province is aware of an event in Westlock. He said there is limited information at this time.
Savinkoff said the cause of the structure collapse is under investigation.
“We are still looking into that. There was a pretty severe weather event that came in with a lot of wind. It seems pretty clear that that had a large contributing factor to the collapse. Any more than that will be determined throughout the investigation, what could have caused any potential failures to the tent itself.”
