The Great Flooded North

Up to 100,000 Canadians may be displaced by heavy flooding. I none of our Canuckistani SJers are dealing with this.

http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/06/20/floods-wash-away-roads-in-canmore-close-trans-canada-highway-and-trigger-emergencies-across-southern-alberta/

 

There are some wild pics and video out there of houses and high ways being swept away. It is crazy how much of Southern Alberta is underwater. I know there are a few members of SJ.ca who are in Calgary and area, my thoughts and prayers are with you as well as the rest of region tonight. Stay safe and stay dry. I know there are a lot of people offering spare rooms and beds, please find one if you one.

 

Even Red Deer, which is about an hour and three quarters north of Calgary is under flood warnings.

 

Very sad. And yet ole Mencken is damn pleased and surprised this is not about the Kardashian/West spawn.

 

Eric Francis ‏@EricFrancis 10m
BREAKING: Water is up to row 10 at Saddledome. Dressing rooms completely submerged. Jumbotron rm & all equipment destroyed. #yycflood #NHL

 

It's pretty calm here and most people I know are sitting at home watching the flood on TV. Many of the agencies say they do not need volunteers (will probably need them more for the clean up). Most of us suburban loosers have been offerring up space to people who are displaced by the water.

A buddy of mine, his wife and daughter have had their condo in a trendy downtown area flooded out. He got in from Dallas last night, grabbed his hard drives, laptop and some photography equipment and crashed at a coworkers place. They are coming here tonight as we have a little more space.

Lots of lookee lous out on the roads. The City is telling everyone to stay home from work and get thehell away from water so your dumb ass does not have to rescued.

I am working from home coordinating some Red Cross supplies coming from the West Coast for some of the shelters in the city (I am an airline guy).

 

I live very near the Glenmore Reservoir and there is speculation the dam may not hold, which would result in devastation downstream.
Also talk the Calgary Stampede may be cancelled. Scheduled to start in 2 weeks but Stampede Park is under water.....that's where the Saddledome is located. Calgary Zoo underwater.
Still significant rain forecast for mountains west of here which is headwaters of the Bow and Elbow rivers. Even homes on high ground have flooded basements. Drinking water supply is not contaminated, thankfully.

 

Read somewhere that the Zoo had an evacuation plan for its animals but would be interested to know where they moved them to. That couldn't have been easy.

 

Supposedly they were going to take the big cats to the Court House but that is just a rumor. Station here had the PR Flack from the zoo on about 5 minutes ago who said that no animals evacuated yet but some moved to higher ground at the zoo.

 

The Zoo has moved the big cats to rooms in the basement in the court house. That must have been some amazing work by the staff.
Another surge in water level for the rivers is expected over the next days (maybe hours).
We are tough birds out here but this is a major deal. Not like New Orleans but if the dam on the Elbow river holding back the Glenmore Reservoir doesn't hold, this flood will be a multi billion dollar mess.
I have evacuated my sister in law from her downtown apt. in the 'Beltline' area, a densely populated area with many apartment buildings and condos. Anyone living in low lying areas have parked their cars on higher ground so streets are lined with vehicles.
People seem calm and are already accepting the immediate future and looking to the other side of this. Many people who live in flood prone areas in some of the affected small towns can not buy flood insurance so many will loose their homes with no insurance coverage. The rivers and creeks all over this area look like giant rivers of chocolate milk. East-west travel in southern Alberta and BC is basically impossible.

 

Heard the courthouse thing was a hoax.

The bit about the uninsurable houses is heartbreaking. I badly want to move back to Alberta, but glad I am missing this. The weather has been more screwed up than usual this year. East of Edmonton, they still had 8-12 foot snow drifts in late April, tornadoes last week and now this. Fucked up.