First Day Of Summer ... And It Won't Stop Raining - Vent

[nvsmom]

Ugh. My city is shut down due to flooding. Downtown Calgary is under water and over 100 000 people have been evacuated in our city nevermind the surrounding towns.  My FIL's house is under water, my cousin is evacuated, and we have multiple family friends whose homes are in danger in Calgary, Bragg Creek and Cochrane (by Banff). My hubby just drove out to Bragg Creek to help save a close friend's home.

 

Luckily, we are high and in no danger at all - just a damp basement.

 

Yuck!  There shouldn't be this much water on the prairies and foothills!  Crazy!

 

End vent.

[Gemini]

I am so sorry you are having to deal with this, Nicole!  The weather is just crazy this year.  We had 12 inches of rain in 2 weeks here in Boston, Mass. but I am not complaining when I hear stories like yours.  It had been really dry before hand so we did not suffer any flooding.

 

I hope everyone and their property will be OK...we'll be thinking of you.  I did see some news photos of it and it is just mind boggling. Hang in there, my friend!

[cyclinglady]

So, sorry to hear about the flooding!

[IrishHeart]

I am sorry about the flooding too,  Nicole. 

 

It has rained 13 inches here in the last 3 weeks, but finally, it stopped. Just crazy weather.

 

The poor people who are still recovering from SuperStorm Sandy in NY---just got whacked again by flooding when the creeks overran the borders again. I feel so bad for them.

 

I hope you remain safe and sound.

[VeggieGal]

Really sorry to hear about the flooding...hope the weather improves soon

[nvsmom]

It hasn't rained for 1 hour now... knock on wood!

 

I don't think we have had crazy amounts of rain, it's probably close to a foot over a week, but Calgary isn't meant to handle that much moisture. We are usually pretty dry. Combine that rain with a late spring run-off... We end up with downtown under water.

 

I've even heard that the Saddledome (where the Calgary Flames play) is under water up to the 14th row.

 

During our brief dry spell, my boys and I wandered over to the river (we're about 2km away but we are up hill). Yikes. The houses along the river with walkout basements were full of water; you could barely see the top of the basement windows. We watched an uprooted, fully grown spruce tree go by. Freaky.

 

The weather is supposed to finally break tomorrow. The rivers have crested and now we're just waiting for them to recede.  What a mess!  

[shadowicewolf]

Wish we had some of the water here.

[love2travel]

For those of you who have not done so, google the flood. It is extremely serious. It is all over the news. Nvsmom, glad you are ok. I feel terrible for those who have lost family members due to drowning.

[shadowicewolf]

For those of you who have not done so, google the flood. It is extremely serious. It is all over the news. Nvsmom, glad you are ok. I feel terrible for those who have lost family members due to drowning.

I've seen videos of it on the news

 

Like i said, I wish we had some of that water here. 6 or 7 wild fires going, one of which has caused the evacuation of an entire town. The ground is so very dry.

[nvsmom]

Shadowicewolf - I hope you guys get some rain soon.

Flood waters are expected to start receding. The smaller river (Elbow river) should be halved, and our bigger Bow river should be down by 20% by Monday. Downtown could be re-opened on Tuesday at the very earliest. It was really weird seein downtown without power and dark last night. I seems amazing that a big city's downtown could be closed... Rain and runoff has shut down a city of over a million people. Just freaky!

The expensive houses along the river are destroyed. I've seen pictures of 2-10 million dollar homes that have water coming half way up their front doors. Eek.

[shadowicewolf]

Shadowicewolf - I hope you guys get some rain soon.

Flood waters are expected to start receding. The smaller river (Elbow river) should be halved, and our bigger Bow river should be down by 20% by Monday. Downtown could be re-opened on Tuesday at the very earliest. It was really weird seein downtown without power and dark last night. I seems amazing that a big city's downtown could be closed... Rain and runoff has shut down a city of over a million people. Just freaky!

The expensive houses along the river are destroyed. I've seen pictures of 2-10 million dollar homes that have water coming half way up their front doors. Eek.

The number of fires went up to ten now.

 

Glad to see that its starting to maybe look better. Hopefully the levels will drop  quicker than what they are predicting.

[bartfull]

Shadow, we usually have about the same weather as you do, but this year we have gotten lots of rain. Everything is so green. What I worry about is when the rain stops and our typical summer drought comes back. All that underbrush will make fuel for the fires we usually get in August.

 

NVS, I have been watching in the news and on youtube. Flooded rivers are exciting until they come up so high they start to damage property. I saw one video where an entire building was going down river and it smashed into a bridge. I am so sorry your beautiful city has to go through this.

[shadowicewolf]

Shadow, we usually have about the same weather as you do, but this year we have gotten lots of rain. Everything is so green. What I worry about is when the rain stops and our typical summer drought comes back. All that underbrush will make fuel for the fires we usually get in August.

 

NVS, I have been watching in the news and on youtube. Flooded rivers are exciting until they come up so high they start to damage property. I saw one video where an entire building was going down river and it smashed into a bridge. I am so sorry your beautiful city has to go through this.

We've barely had any rain so far. Normally, by now, we'd be into the rainy season (not to mention hail too), but so far i can count on  my hand how many times we've had it. We're mostly just getting the wind and the lightning from it.

 

I saw that video as well. So was this caused by the run off from the snow and a heavy rain?

[nvsmom]

NVS, I have been watching in the news and on youtube. Flooded rivers are exciting until they come up so high they start to damage property. I saw one video where an entire building was going down river and it smashed into a bridge. I am so sorry your beautiful city has to go through this.

 

That video was in Bragg Creek just west of Calgary. It was two blocks from where my hubby was helping some friends yesterday.  i hear a rumour that Jann Arden (the singer) lived in that destroyed house a few years ago - it was up river a few kilometres.     Three house in the the other direction is a house we were looking to buy a few years ago; we know the people who did buy it and unfortunately it's been totally flooded. Most people who live on rivers do so unisured from flood damage. It's sad.  I'm guessing that people have lost billions.

 

 

Shadowicewolf - Yes. We've had a really cold spring and it has been raining more than normal in the weeks leading up to the flood (and snowing in the mountains).  We then had a lot of rain over four days. My place had about 10cm of rain (that's lots for us) but Banff and Canmore in the mountains got over double that amount and there is no where for that water to go but downhill and into the rivers, which were already high from melting snow. If these rains had come a month later, the damage would not have been as extensive.

 

Hope you get rain.