Lately, I've been grateful to be living in this part of the province - it seems far enough away from the floods going on to the south, that I need not worry about getting my stuff washed away in a torrent of mud, silt, and water.
I can say without hesitation that watching some of the footage of what happened in Calgary is downright frightful. Within days, what is being described as the worst flood in the area since 2005, hit a whole southwest portion of the province, reducing Calgary, High River, Canmore, and a gamut of other towns and habitations into dangerous swamps. Footage of the violent overflow from the dams for the Elbow and Bow was absolutely staggering.
Unsurprisingly, a lot of what I learned about the flood's damages came from photos and videos my friends living in the affected areas took and posted to social media. A former classmate of mine living in Calgary documented himself and his pals wading through the surging waist-deep brown water, through streets otherwise empty, soaking it all in (pun not intended).
Several photo albums accompanied the video on his social media site, depicting the filthy chaotic morass to which the flood reduced his and his roommates’ house. I noticed with some alarm, the half-stuffed suitcases pictured drifting around in the background, in muddy-soup that had inundated their home. Little details like those are testament of how quickly the flood was upon them in the city.
The guys, of course, had to add a little humor to the situation, photographing themselves standing in the midst of the flooded street up to their soaked waists in water, each with a bottle of beer in hand. As foolish as they looked, I can understand – I’d need a beer too, dealing with that mess.
Several of my friends living in the Kannanaskis area were literally trapped in the mountains by the raging waters. The flooding was so severe that it eroded away the roads leading out there, leaving a shattered bank of rock, asphalt, and mud where it once was. One of my friends posted pictures of cavernous sinkholes that reduced the roads to muddy trenches and ravines in some spots.
They too, posted a number of videos. Only a few days ago, work on the ravaged roads looked more like a backhoe loader trying to sort out all the assorted pieces of asphalt, rock, metal, and wood the swelling river had broken the road and the surrounding landscape into.
In all this chaos, I’d like to extend an emphatic kudos to everyone who is working to help out with the relief effort. Organizations like the Red Cross, the local Co-op, and Credit Union are doing their best to make sure people have food, clothing, clean water, and a safe place to lay their heads, and in a time like this, that can make a world of difference.
