Southern Alberta Flood

Back in my updates, I mentioned a few things I wanted to talk more about at a later time.

One of those things was the massive flooding that occurred in Southern Alberta in June.  I'll share my experience, and pics, as well as other pics from areas around me.

We had been experiencing heavy rain a few days before the flooding happened, and combined with the spring snow melt from the mountains (which the rain melted much more rapidly than normal), served to triggered the flooding.

On Thursday, June 20th, Canmore, just over an hour west of Calgary in the mountains, started to flood.  It stemmed from a small creek that just didn't have the ability to absorb the massive amounts of run-off and rain coming from the mountains. Very quickly, a state of emergency was declared.  Homes were completely lost, and the main highway was wiped out.

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By the afternoon of that same day, the flooding had continued its way down river.  Bragg Creek ( a small town) was completely evacuated, and several other small communities declared states of emergencies.  High River was also completely evacuated later in the afternoon, and was the hardest hit out of all the flood zones.  Some residents are STILL not back in their homes, and may never be.

High River:

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 By the afternoon, flooding had started to reach downtown Calgary, where two rivers merge into one big river.  By the time I left work, 10 communities in Calgary had been evacuated.

I went about my normal life.  I went to zumba, and then I went for a walk by the river (I live in the river valley).  The river was high, and flowing fast with a lot of debris, but I wasn't worried.  The river was on one side of the valley, against the ridge, and I was against the opposite ridge.  I had a couple of km's between us, and protection from the golf course.  Stephan cautioned me to be careful, anything could happen.

Its important to note at this point that Stephan was away at work.

I stayed up until midnight, watching the news.  All schools had been closed for the following day, and downtown Calgary now looked like this:

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In shock, but still not worried about my home in the valley, I went to bed.  I was promptly woken up at 1:30am by bright flashing police lights, with the police yelling over megaphones that my community was now under a mandatory evacuation and we must leave IMMEDIATELY.   (On a little side note, when I woke up, I put my glasses on to look out the window, not realizing that I had fallen asleep with my contacts in, and may have panicked a little bit about why I couldn't see when I had my glasses on already). 

In full panic mode, I called Stephan.  My hands were just shaking.  He helped keep me calm on the phone, reminding me of important things to pack (passports), and to unplug the lights, put an x on my door, etc.  I may have grabbed from the house then I needed to, but I had no idea what was going to happen. 

Luckily, I had a place to go, to my "Calgary Family", so I gave them a call and went there. I spent about 2 days out of my house, an utter ball of stress, with barely any sleep.  I would just break down and cry at any given moment. The entire city was in shut down, no one was working, everyone was told to stay home.  All bridges over the river were closed, which means it was impossible to get anywhere in the city (built on the river) anyways. Most of my frustration and stress was from lack of information on my community.  I don't want to complain, our Mayor did an AMAZING job of handling the flood, keeping everyone safe, and getting everyone evacuated in time, but trying to get information on my community was very frustrating. 

So my Calgary Family took me back to check first and make sure.  My house was 100% safe, no flood damage, the water didn't get close to my house. It turns out I could have returned to my house 2 hours later, at 3:30am in the morning.  Except they forget to notify the people who had left of that fact.  They tweeted on the Calgary police twitter page (I don't have twitter), and that was it.  The city was not notified.  Hence why I had difficulty finding out if my community was ok, if I could go back, because they didn't even KNOW we had been evacuated!

Better safe than sorry though :)

Here's what the flooding looked like in the valley where I live (it's still serious, quite some damage, but we're very lucky it didn't reach the houses. Not one house received any damage from the flood in our community, so I don't have to leave, I can stay in my little valley which I oh so love, yay!!):

bike path on the river by my house

And here are some more pics outside my community, in areas in Calgary and in the Canmore/Bragg Creek Area:

Canmore - this was cougar creek, a thin trickle that started the flooding

Canmore - Cougar creek

Calgary - Fishcreek Provincial Park

Calgary - Fishcreek Provincial Park

Calgary - Fishcreek Provincial Park

Calgary - Fishcreek Provincial Park

 

 

I thank God every day that he kept our home safe for us, that I had a home to return to when so many have lost their homes, and that I can continue to live in the valley that I have come to love.  I also thank God that I had people to turn to in this time of need, who were so wonderful and supportive of me during a very trying time.