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A woman with sturdy rubber boots makes her way into Lake Walmart. #yeg pic.twitter.com/4I1X5WavcR — Jonny Wakefield (@jonnywakefield) August 5, 2017

“I got the fishing licence eventually, but it was kind of a crazy scene,” he said. “Then I came to Walmart and all the lights were out, and it was a crazy scene outside here.”

His plan for the rest of the evening? Stay dry.

“I’m going to eat some potato leek soup and chill at home,” he said.

Photo by David Bloom / Postmedia

The slow-moving thunderstorm was capable of producing very strong winds, nickel-size hail, heavy rain and flash floods, the weather warning said.

Lightning caused a fire at a four-storey condo building at 1320 Rutherford Road after striking a rooftop vent.

Robert Bend, a district chief with Edmonton Fire Rescue, said a resident in the adjacent condo reported a lightning strike and smoke coming from the roof around 3:30 p.m. Flames were visible from the roof when fire crews arrived.

“Most of the fire was contained to the turret where the actual lightning strike was, and we’re just checking to make sure there was no spread,” he said.

He did not know whether the resident was home at the time, but said it’s fairly common to see these types of fires during electrical storms.

“We still had active lightning going on when we first arrived so we didn’t set up the ladder at that time because we didn’t want a lightning rod.”

Shaun Veech, who lives on the ground floor, said the building was evacuated when the fire alarms went off. Residents were sheltered in an ETS bus called to the scene.

The storm also disabled traffic lights across the city. The weather warning advised motorists to keep their distance from other vehicles and slow down in cases of reduced visibility.

In a news release, city officials said the flooding was concentrated in south and east Edmonton. Flooding was reported at the intersection of Whitemud Drive and 99 Street.

A number of manhole covers were also dislodged during the storm.

A second weather advisory issued for Edmonton Saturday afternoon said conditions could be favourable for the development of funnel clouds in the evening.

jwakefield@postmedia.com