Red Cross

Not everyone volunteers doing the dirty work, as someone needs to plan for aid stations and do logistical work to ensure the people displaced by a disaster will get proper long term care.
My good buddy Vince, from the Red Cross, called to ask for help after I told him of my availability. Along with Dario Diaz, the Regional Director of Mass care and Logistics Emergency Services who headed up the field reconnaissance, myself and a couple of other volunteers went out to survey some of the flood areas and emergency contact personnel.

At Red Cross headquarters with Aziz, Dario and Kamal

Flood waters ran through here

Still half full of water and muck

My daughters place, now uninhabitable

This isn't even the worst hit part of the city either!

You can see how close the flood came to the next floor

Very sad to see someone's home destroyed like this

On The Road With....Gerry!

Gerry was riding up from Phoenix and Brian and I decided to give him a bit of moral support as he made the last push on day 5 of a challenging ride. Some rain to make it a bit tougher, but I think he was happy to see some familiar faces and have some road buddies to get through the those last couple of hundred km.

Just outside Cardston.

Me and B.B.

Dark skies ahead.

What A Difference!

Went back around our "island" to see how things were looking after the flood waters receded. Pretty grim for many home owners, be it house, apartment or condo, and many businesses too. A lot of people pitching in to help out and lots of equipment and machinery working long hours is making a huge difference. Took photos to replicate the same, more or less, shots I took earlier, when the flood was at it's peak. You can see the difference 72 hours makes.

Sunday evening and still some water on the east bank

Sun going down, along with the water level

You can see where the water level had been

Where the Elbow meets the Bow

Water had been hitting the deck of this bridge

Water was also flowing over this bridge too

Half the bank is gone

It almost looks like nothing happened...almost

Crested?

It's now 11:30 p.m. and pitch black in many areas of the city core and river side communities. Apparently the Elbow has crested, so let's hope that means there will be no more damage than what's been done so far. Unfortunately, the Bow isn't expected to crest for another 6 or 7 hours, so we can only wait for dawn and see what that brings.

No doubt this will be big news

The entire community of Elbow Park is flooded

Possibly a total loss here

This is even more unbelievable when you consider that the Calgary Exhibition and Stampede is only two weeks away!

The McDonald Bridge now has water flowing over the top of it after an entire day 

That's how high the water has risen

They parked the trains on the bridge to help stabalize them

Erlton

Rescued!

The road is now a river

On dry land...almost

I never thought I'd see a boat on Macleod Trail

Erlton St looking down toward 25th Ave

More Flood Photos

The LRT underpass, fit only for ducks

The river running down 25th Ave, across Macleod Trail and through the LRT crossing into the Stampede grounds

Waterfront propert indeed!

The Fire Dept rescue boat is there to pick up stranded homeowners

Surreal Scene.

The Stampede grounds getting bombarded by the Elbow River

The water usually flows about 3 or more metres below the deck of these bridges and there's a footpath, on the right, under there as well

25th Ave, as you head toward Macleod Trail. That's the river running through there at the bottom of the road, flowing over land.

River Ride

A beautiful sunny evening, a rarity in Calgary these days, and we opted to go for a bike ride and enjoy the great outdoors, plus some fresh air and exercise, but there was some great things to see as well.

How is this for irony. We went for a bike ride on Tuesday evening, as it was a rare, sunny evening and there was more rain predicted for the following three days. The ride was wonderful and I snapped quite a few photos, but with the following day being busy, I never got to post what i assembled here. 

The next day also brought another deluge of rain and with so much happening, I never got to adding this to the blog.

Now, you can look through these photos and see just what the river looked like before the flood and see what was lost, and may yet be lost. Let's hope for a break and some relief from the chaos!

Cruisin'

I LOVE this bridge!!!

An architectural marvel.

The new artwork on the Riverwalk

This is pretty trippy!!!

Two of the 4 artists who conceptualized the artwork and are out doing the actual painting