Mapping the Flood

There’s a map in Calgary that tells the story of the flood, and how it affects each person.

The evacuation zones are mapped out – and that’s the first question you ask someone when you first see them after the flood. Were you evacuated?

No.

Or yes, but we’re dry; that’s green in the evacuation zone.

Or yes, and we got some water, but just in the basement and we’re getting help cleaning it out and we’ll be fine. That’s yellow.

Then there’s red ­– and that’s the bad stuff. It’s defined as water deeper than the electrical outlets, so that it’s not safe to turn on the power. The reality of red zone buildings includes water as deep as twelve feet, houses pushed off their foundations, homes that had water flowing through them as they became a part of the river.

Those are the houses that may get the new colour – the black dot. Those are the buildings that are going to be torn down, too structurally damaged to repair.

It’s the red zone and the black dots that will define who is losing the most, in the randomness of the flood.

Maureen

Writing Through Distractions

I keep writing about working through distractions – oh those distractions – and thinking they can’t get worse. I have to stop that. They’ve now reached biblical proportions – flood levels through Calgary close to the flow rate over Niagara Falls.

We’re now rebuilding, in a desperate flurry to empty soaked basements and strip them down to studs and cement before mould takes over. I’m not one of the mud-bedecked volunteers because I’m allergic to mould and… well… there’s no point in my going down and making the situation worse. I’ve found myself another job, posting flood updates on Facebook, for friends who are too busy with the work of rebuilding to follow breaking news, or are out of town but want to stay up-to-date.

So I have a flood-job, but I feel the need to settle back into regular life a little, to remind myself that there is normalcy, even if it’s a new normal here.

I ventured down into one of the recovering evacuation zones and met some writers who were going to coffee shops and libraries to write anyway. That’s what I need to do. I think I just need to work. Perhaps I’ll have an epic fail – I’ll let you know – but I will make the attempt. It’s bum-in-seat time.

Maureen

I Love My City

Calgary is astounding.

We’ve been hit with massive flooding from torrential rains upstream, with just enough notice to evacuate low-lying areas. The two rivers that flow through Calgary both flooded. Close to 100,000 people were evacuated, (that’s 10% of the city’s population), but very few ended up in shelters. They just drove over to a friend’s house, or stayed with family.

Emergency plans were impeccable ­– no one in the city has died, there are no injuries, at least so far, although there have been some tragic deaths in High River, where they had no warning of the flash flooding.

Our mayor, Naheed Nenshi, has been astounding, the voice of calm, working tirelessly. Well, not quite tirelessly. During his second day with no sleep a new hash tag emerged – #nap4nenshi – as people noticed how tired he was looking in his briefings. One of my favorite nap4nenshi tweets:

zahra al-harazi @zahrasays

#nap4nenshi best. hashtag. ever. @nenshi go get some sleep, your city is safe.

And so, after 40 hours, he went to bed. napforyyc emerged as another hashtag, urging emergency workers to make sure they got some sleep.

100 police officers from Edmonton came down, to help out our cops (so they could sleep, too). A military cavalcade drove down from Edmonton, to help in Calgary and Canmore, and poor battered High River.

And through it all, people remained calm and kind and generous. The Drop-In Centre for homeless people stayed open in an evacuation zone as long as it could,  taking in everyone from every agency that had to evacuate – and then moved everyone to a safe place when their building was no longer safe. But they had no food – no blankets. They sent out a call for help and within hours had line-ups of people delivering donations.

The Stampede Grounds are deep under water, but the show will go on. Not sure how, or what it will look like this year, but it will be the best ever, because we’ll all be there, even if most years we leave town to avoid the fuss.

As I’m writing this, I don’t know if the Bow River water level is dropping yet. There may be some more rain coming, dams releasing water upstream… we hope we’re through the worst of it but we’re still waiting.

But the sun is shining.

Maureen