Thursday June 20, 2013
Our son Brad called us early this morning to ask if we were okay. We said sure we were just getting up. He went on to say he heard that there was flooding from the Elbow River in our area of Bragg Creek. Well it had been raining the day before and all night, but this didn't seem to be an overly amount of rain so far. We got dressed and put on our rain coats to walk to the top of the river cliff. It was a shock to see how fast the water had risen and to see the amount of it flowing down the river. In fact it seemed like a wild ocean broken loose. This was the start of the 2013 Flood and already low lying areas along the rivers had started to flood.
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| Looking at the Elbow River from our cliff top |
Today, the heavy rain and flooding has prompted several Alberta communities to declare local states of emergency. Torrential rains and wide spread flooding through Southern Alberta has washed out roads and bridges and has sent residents scurrying to high ground. People are being rescued from their roof tops in High River by helicopters, others are rescued by boat.
It seems like every hour we keep walking over to the top of the river cliff to see if there is any change to the flow in the river. The rain has still not let up and the river keeps getting higher and wider. The Elbow River has eroded new channels and is very wide now. They have put up road blocks at the top of the cliff outside of our yard now as the highway is starting to be covered with water.
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| The Highway is being washed away and the Old Trading Post is Flooded |
The news reports that the Bow River Basin is also battered and can have up to 100 mm of rain today.
Today, more than a dozen towns are declared states of emergency with entire communities including High River and our village of Bragg Creek being put under mandatory evacuation.
We go out to the roadway and look every time that the rain lets up for 10 minutes. Huge trees are being pulled out by their roots and are slowly being washed away.
We decide to stay in our home as we are up on the top of the river cliffs and set back a ways. It is still raining hard and it has not let up at all. The entrance into our yard is over-flowing with water. Fortress shut down our power around 3:00 this afternoon which left us scrambling to get the generator out of the garage and carried over to the walk-out on our house. We needed power to keep our sump pump running as it was keeping the ground water level from building up under our house. As a result of this short power outage we got a couple of inches of water in the basement bedrooms. Once the pump was running we realized it was only as good as the amount of gas that we had in it. Our neighbor gave us another jerry can of gas and Geo decided to try to make it to Priddis to fill up several other jerry cans in case the power remained out. Our power was returned at 6:00 pm and we were so happy as we would have heat and lights for the night.
We can not drive down the hill and go into the village anymore as the highway has started to crumble and fall apart. We are watching as the river gets wider and wider and deeper and deeper. It is kinda scary and I feel bad for the people living down in the lower levels of the village along the river bottom. We are hearing that some have not made it out of their homes yet and we have heard and seen the helicopters flying over head continuously. We are hearing that the river is flowing right through the village and has flooded the stores and homes.
It seems that access from Calgary to our home is getting limited as highways are being flooded and bridges are being washed out. We decide to just ride it out and stay put here.
Friday, June 21, 2013
We wake up this morning to find that the massive weather system responsible for the storm is still trapped over Southern Alberta by a high pressure system to the North and winds blowing toward the West, the opposite direction of the prevailing winds through out Canada. The Rockies are preventing the storm from moving West and so it is stuck over this region. It is still pouring rain!
We walk over to our view point on top of the hill and look down. Today we see the old Shell Trading Post has water up to the second floor and we are told that it has made it's way up to 100 ft behind the main building now. This is very sad as this old trading post is so much of Bragg Creek's history and the family has lived there for many years.
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Bragg Creek Trading Post
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By late afternoon, the highway below us is totally gone. We will have to go the long way around to go to the village now. We are also hearing on the news that the bridge by Allan Bill Pond is totally gone, that the traffic circle on Hwy #8 is totally under water and that highway is now closed.
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| Hwy 66 Bridge on way to Allen Bill Pond |
The news announces that the Trans Canada Highway #1 is closed at Canmore. Pomeroy, U. of Sask. hydrologist, in Canmore states that "There's still some snow in the mountains so the ground was frozen and things are relatively wet at this time of the year already. Then the heavy rain moved in. We know it was raining on top of the mountains and that caused rapid snow melt and so we think that in some places another 110 millimeters of snow melt was contributed to that rainfall water."
The heavy rainfall sparks a State of Emergency in Southern Alberta communities.
An estimated 100,000 residents in 25 neighborhoods lying along the rivers have been ordered to evacuate. Transit services through out downtown Calgary have been shut down. There has been massive destructive flooding in the core of Calgary from the Elbow River bursting it's banks in the South and East, and the Bow River in the North. Downtown Calgary is almost entirely under water. The news is saying that the Bow River is carrying three times as much water as in the 2005 flood.
Meteorologists are reporting that the river is flowing 6 to 7 times it's normal volume and the city has called a local state of emergency. Police are urging people to stay away from downtown Calgary and not to go into work in the core of the city. Because of were the downtown is located, on low ground beside the rivers, with bridges and underpasses, access to the downtown is severely affected. All schools are closed.
Heavy rains eight years ago in 2005 caused flood damage to about 40,000 Calgary homes and resulted in the evacuation of more than 1,500 Calgarians. The 2005 Flood resulted in $275 million in insured losses.
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Water levels on the Bow aren't expected to subside until late Saturday.
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| Calgary 2013 Flood |
The hydrologist Uldis Silins at the U of A, in Edmonton said "Most significant is a large amount of rainfall - up to 200 mm in some places. And in ground that is already saturated because of some modest precipitation - about 40mm - preceding the deluge. Combine that with areas that were still frozen not far below the surface and local geography that encourages water to run downhill quickly and then there's a recipe for this week's devastation. In this particular case, it was a little bit of precipitation preceding the heaviest rainfall, and then a period of 16 hours of very heavy rain. Along with the torrents of rain, there were unexpected wind patterns and the converge of 2 huge weather systems. Some of the hardest hit areas have experienced twice as much rain in 48 hours that the normal average for all of June. On June 20, Calgary experienced record one day rainfall with 45 mm coming down."
It is likely that most home owners will not receive compensation through their insurance company. The Insurance Bureau of Canada states that damage from "overland flooding" is not covered. If there is damage from sewer or septic it may be covered. Vehicle owners with comprehensive coverage are likely to be covered if their vehicle is flooded.
There are solutions to the growing expense of flood relief. Simply by restricting further development on the flood plains would be a start. What about a move away from flood relief payments and a move towards some form of flood-plain insurance. At present you can not even purchase overland-flooding insurance. Even if you could get it, the premiums would be so high because of the risk. Most wouldn't be able to live close to the river if they weren't subsidized by the rest of society in the form of flood relief. We need the flood relief at present to help these people get back into their homes. But in the future -why do we keep letting people build in low levels. My grandfather always told us "never build your home on low ground."
Sunday, June 23, 2013
As the water recedes, people are slowly allowed back into their homes to access the damage, to begin clean-up and then try to return to a normal life. It is amazing to see the amount of volunteers out there helping to try and accomplish this but it is heart-breaking to see the damage done to the homes in all of these areas.
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| The Bragg Creek Trading Post after the Elbow River ran through it and then receded |
