June 20: One Year Ago

One year ago today, I was being evacuated from my home due to severe floods in Calgary.  I will never forget that day.  I had the day off because I had some major work done on my teeth (didn't want to be a drooling mess in front of my students).  I watched the river behind the house rise for most of the day. Some communities were already being evacuated. My sister and some friends dropped by that evening to go for a walk and see what was happening in Fish Creek Park. As we walked through the park and saw just how high the Bow River was, we ran into a neighbour who let me know that our area was next on the evacuation list. I kind of laughed it off thinking it couldn't get much higher.  After everyone left the house and I watched more of the news, I began to realise how serious this was. I went for another walk to the river an hour after the first one and it had gone up significantly.

Now, Shea and I had already packed up a lot of the house before he moved to London.  We had left all this valuable stuff that we wanted to keep in basement.  I made a few phone calls to my future brother-in-law, my aunt and uncle and my parents, all of whom were not picking up their phones.  So I started hauling boxes (or at least the ones I could carry) upstairs.  Eventually, people started getting their messages and my family all found their way to my place.  We moved the last of my things to high ground and waited.

The police lights started flashing in front of the house around 11:30pm.  It was time to pack up and evacuate.
Thankfully, I had done a bit of packing and planning while we waited and there were 3 vehicles there that I could fill with my stuff.  We all started grabbing things and cats and moved into my parents house (which is right across the river from my place).

That night was a very long night. You could hear the river roaring all night.

The next day, the river was higher than I ever could have imagined.

The Bow River from my parents home. Normally, you can see a river and a small creek running through this area.  There are also little islands along the river. 

More Bow River.

That morning, we were all very anxious to get back to my place to see the damage (if any).  It did not look good from our vantage point. But we were still kind of hopeful that everything would be okay.

That hope kind of faded when we crossed the Deerfoot Bridge and saw these following pictures.

The Bow River looking north.  

The Bow River looking North.  This is where Lafarge has a large business.  All of it was under water.

 Thankfully, after we found the flashlights and ventured into the basement, the house had no water inside.  It was still safe!

The river was VERY close to the backyard, as you can see.  Normally, you can only see a little bit of water from this vantage point. It had to crest a hill and form a new river through the field.  

Nothing like a photo-op flood moment!  

Some of the evacuees.

 We were very thankful that the basement never flooded.  None of our neighbours had any damage either.  Unfortunately, Fish Creek Park, a park that I have grown up in, will never be the same.  I strapped my GoPro to my bike and got these shots after the water had receded.

This used to be a nice little creek that I used to boat down as a kid.  Now there are fallen telephone poles, and a sandy beach.

Some fallen trees on a washed-out bike path.

Debris along a bike path that is now full of large stones.  Notice the bench.  It survived the flood. 

This is some debris from Lafarge along the creek.

A log pile.  Someone had already come along here and collected rubbish along the broken path. 

This used to be a path and bridge  towards Mackenzie Lake.  The bridge is gone and the path ends.

Another shot of the broken bridge.

Calgary has forever changed after this flood.  It was an event that build communities and tested the City. Our mayor became even more awesome in my eyes.  School final exams were cancelled (and I had some pretty awesome exams ready for my students)! People did whatever they could to help strangers affected by the flood.  We even had the Stampede go ahead (still refused to attend though, another story).

I am looking forward to going home for the summer and seeing how Fish Creek has changed after one year. I don't think the bridges have been rebuild and the paths have been reconstructed but it will be interesting to see what has happened to the landscape.  What trees are still living? How has the wildlife adapted to the new park?  How has the river system changed?  Do my parents still have a bike path behind their house or has it eroded into the river?