“Nature humbles, and leaves you so helpless.”

Words spoken by Don Getty, Alberta’s premier in 1987 – the same year a massive and destructive tornado tore through east Edmonton.

“To prepare for this kind of a move by nature is almost impossible.”

In the days, weeks and years following Friday, July 31, 1987 – it seems provincial governments, and weather experts alike have been doing the “almost impossible”, taking measures to better prepare citizens, should the events of that fateful afternoon be repeated.

That day, Environment Canada issued a severe thunderstorm watch in the early afternoon – an hour later it was upgraded to a warning.

A quarter of an hour after that two tornadoes were reported to have touched down, one in Leduc, and one in Beaumont – and minutes later the first tornado warning was issued for the Edmonton area.

For a down-to-the-minute breakdown of that day, see our Timeline.

For the next hour and a half, the tornado cut a 45 kilometre path of destruction through east Edmonton.

As a result, 27 people died, dozens more were injured, and 300 homes were destroyed.

The destruction left many government officials and weather experts scrambling for answers to the same question: What could have been done?

“Perhaps if we had a different warning, something different could have been done,” Former Mayor Laurence Decore said at the time. “Maybe more time could have been given to some people.”

Over the years, major strides and improvements were made to communication and forecasting tools.

“What could we have done if we had only been 25 years ahead?” Dan Kulak with Environment Canada said. “The Edmonton Tornado is just one of those examples.”

The tornado that touched down that afternoon has been at the centre of studies for forecasters for years.

It also prompted the introduction of Doppler radar by Environment Canada in the early 1990’s – making it much easier for meteorologists to see the rotation of a threatening storm. A tornado watch is meant to give residents about 2 hours of lead time, while warnings are closer to 10 minutes.

However, forecasters still rely on witness reports, to confirm whether a storm has escalated.

“For tornado warnings, even though we do have the Doppler radar to help us look at rotation, we still rely a lot on weather reports for eye witnesses to confirm exactly what’s happening with a particular storm,” Kulak said.

Also in the early 1990’s, the province introduced the Emergency Public Warning System, now called the Alberta Emergency Alert – designed to better inform residents via radio, cable and television.

The city responded with their plans to handle such a disaster should it happen again, after first responders had to make do with a make-shift command centre, which took two hours to get running.

Now, the City of Edmonton has a dedicated Incident Command Centre, which can be ready for use within 15 to 20 minutes.

“Communications and coordination, it doesn’t matter what era a disaster occurs in, those are always the two biggest challenges,” Joanne Sheardown with the city’s Office of Emergency Preparedness said.

It’s a change welcomed by District Chief Pat Martin, who – with seven years’ experience as a firefighter – was dispatched to a hard-hit business in the Strathcona Industrial Park, and had to sift through twisted steel and concrete with his bare hands as he helped search for survivors.

“If it was to happen again, and we are those 25 years smarter and advanced I guess, we have more tools available to us,” Martin said. “The core of departments in the city [can be] ready at the flick of a switch.”

The command centre would house fire, police, emergency medical services, utilities, Alberta Health and Public Information officials, reaching residents via Twitter and Facebook, and the Alberta Emergency Alert system.

“There’s a lot of different ways to get that messaging out to the public, which is really important, because you don’t know, during a disaster, which systems will be working and witch won’t,” Sheardown said.

With files from Erin Isfeld