The Rains Came Down and the Floods Came Up

This is old news, I know. The Alberta Floods of 2013 happened almost 2 months ago. But this is something I hope I never forget. This is something that I want emblazoned on my soul and in the memories of everyone I know. This was the moment in history when our Prairie home lost her innocence.  When Alberta turned into a land of desolation – almost in a heartbeat. When rain became a cruel enemy, when our beautiful rivers turned into angry destructive tyrants, when Policemen lined up on highways to keep citizen’s out of their homes.

I remember listening to the news on the morning of June 20, 2013. The CBC radio station kept updating reports concerning a swelling creek near Canmore Alberta. Cougar Creek used to be nothing more than that – a creek, small and friendly - picturesque. But on this day, rain began to fall like it had never fallen before. In fact, within 36 hours many places in Alberta received half of the rainfall that they usually receive in an entire year. The rain fell, not gently or even robustly. It rained like a bursting pipe that no one seemed to know how to shut off.

Nothing like this has ever happened in all of Alberta’s history. Part of the problem was too much water from above. But another big issue was the amount of moisture in the ground. It was still spring. There was still melting snowpack to absorb and the ground was so heavy with moisture already that there was literally nowhere for the rain to go.

The 6 Alberta rivers affected by this deluge literally exploded. They overflowed their banks, tore up highways, swept beautiful estate homes off their foundations, and carried them down stream, turned railroad tracks into spiral shaped picket fences and ravaged the downtown core of the bustling city of Calgary, Alberta (3100 buildings flooded and the business district shut down for days). As the rivers began to overflow people had to be evacuated from their homes and places of business. 100,000 Albertans were suddenly, unexpectedly homeless (75,000 from Calgary). In the small town of High River the flood came so quickly that people had to be immediately rounded up and moved to higher, drier ground. Some could not move fast enough and hundreds had to be removed from their rooftops by helicopters. That entire town was evacuated for weeks, some homes will never be saved.

When the waters receded there was enormous destruction to deal with. Toxic mud was left behind in thousands of basements and wherever mud wasn’t – mold was. Nasty explosively expanding mold moved all over, behaving like a psychopath. To help with this onslaught, 2200 armed forces were deployed. They assisted the local police, firemen and other first responders. People offered their homes and their resources to total strangers. Volunteers from every part of the province (and further) came by the thousands and assisted with pumping, shoveling, hauling, pulling out, tearing down, etc. etc. etc. It has been the greatest outpouring of charity and brotherly kindness that Alberta has ever experienced. (What else can you do in the face of the greatest devastation the province has ever known?)

This disaster will cost billions of dollars. This disaster has changed parts of Alberta forever. It will be years before some people know “normal” again. And many fear that there are those who never will.