Flooding Evacuation

Initially I had planned to write about our house painting, and our latest trip and hike in Waterton, but that all came to a screeching halt when a friend texted me this afternoon, "Hey, I heard your community is being evacuated, do you need a place to stay."

Evacu-whaaaa?

Tom and I started googling for any kind of update, and found a news story saying that our community was being evacuated due to the rising waters of the Elbow River, and widespread flooding. Knowing how close our condo is to the Elbow River, we both dropped everything at work and rushed home,. The article had said the community would be cut off to residents at 3pm (it was already 2:45pm), but we decided to try anyway. When we got to the community we had no trouble getting into the condo, but the parking lot was full of people who had also rushed home.

At first glance, there didn't appear to be too much different at our condo. We went inside and Tom immediately pointed out this sight from our window.

Normally this is just trees and a bit of grass.

I started packing, thinking, "Let's get some stuff, and get the hell out of here." Tom started running around taking pictures. He wanted to look in the parkade. He wanted to look on the other side of the building.

I should state that-- Tom and I could not have more polar opposite reactions to this event. I wa overwhelmed with worry and anxiety. I had adrenline pumping through me. Tom wa as calm as can be-- almost gleeful at the excitement of everything unfolding. Honest to God, I hope our kids have some kind of happy medium of these two. I don't think either reaction is particularly good!

By the time we had packed our stuff and started to take it to the car, water was flowing into the parkade in our building.

And flowing...

And flowing.

Thanks to Tom's exploring, he noticed water coming into the parkade early, and got the car out quickly. But there were other people who came home later than us, and were not able retrieve their vehicles. We could see several cars were submerged inside.

At this point, the parking lot was a scene of mass chaos, over-run with people coming and going. The police and fire crews were on scene, the fire alarms were going off and building security stopped letting people into the buildings. When we left, the entrance to the parkade was nearly submerged.

Tom and Andrew went back later in the evening to see how high the water had come. They left the car at the entrance to Discovery Ridge and had to walk into the community. The parkade entrance was completely submerged.

The stairwell into the parkade was submerged.

However, our condo (one of the units on the right) is still high and dry.

Thankfully, this was also a reminder of how great our friends and family are. We had dozens of offers to put us up for the weekend, and everyone we talked to offered to help in any way they could.

Our community was only one of over two dozen that were evacuated yesterday. My parents were evacuated, and many of our friends found themselves to be unexpected refugees. The zoo is completely submerged, as well as the Saddledome, and most of the Stampede grounds. And it is currently pouring like there's no tomorrow. Transformers are being flooded and communities are losing power.

This is definitely the biggest flooding event that I've ever seen.

Thinking good thoughts for everyone in Alberta today.