Alberta floods: RCMP asks for military help as floods threaten Calgary area
Torrential rains and widespread flooding throughout southern Alberta on Thursday washed out roads and bridges, sent residents scurrying for safety, and delivered up surreal scenes of cars, couches and refrigerators being swept away.
Residents of High River, Alberta, say they have never seen flooding cause so much damage to their town. High River spokeswoman Joan Botkin says army crews are on their way to assist people trapped by the rising waters.
Torrential rains and widespread flooding throughout southern Alberta on Thursday washed out roads and bridges, sent residents scurrying for safety, and delivered up surreal scenes of cars, couches and refrigerators being swept away.
The RCMP put out a call for help to the Canadian Armed Forces, which sent in two helicopters and a Hercules aircraft to help extract people stranded by water.
Officials with the City of Calgary said as many as 100,000 people in low-lying neighbourhoods could be forced from their homes due to heavy flooding, an evacuation that would take place in stages over the next few days.
Bruce Burrell, director of the Calgary Emergency Management Agency, said water levels on the Bow River aren’t expected to subside until Saturday afternoon.
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“Depending on the extent of flooding we experience overnight, there may be areas of the city where people are not going to be able to get into until the weekend,” he told a news conference.
Burrell said they suggested that workers in downtown Calgary, which borders on the river, leave work early Thursday if they live in threatened areas, so they could prepare to evacuate.
Other workers were advised to consider staying late so as to lighten the rush-hour load on roads that might be needed for evacuations.
The Calgary Zoo, located on St. George’s Island, shut down in the afternoon and said it would also be closed Friday.
“Rest assured Animal Care are working closely with our facilities team to ensure the safety of all of our animals during this period of flood risk and are following our established emergency protocols,” the zoo said on its website.
The Bow River Basin was battered with up to 100 mm of rain.
There were flashpoints of chaos from Banff and Canmore and Crowsnest Pass in the Rockies, to Calgary and beyond in the north and south to Lethbridge.
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- Alberta residents face rising flood waters
“I woke up at about (3 a.m.) to the sound of this kind of rumbling and it was the creek,” said Wade Graham, a resident of Canmore, west of Calgary.
“At first it was just intense, pretty powerful, amazing thing to watch. As daylight came, it just got bigger and bigger and wider and wider, and it’s still getting bigger and bigger and wider and wider.
“All you can hear is like boulders and trees. I watched a refrigerator go by, I watched a shed go by, I watched couches go by. It’s insane.”
The Bow River Basin was battered late Wednesday and into Thursday with up to 100 millimetres of rain, bringing river levels to the breaking point. Parts of Calgary along the Bow and Elbow rivers remained in the crosshairs with residents in six low-lying areas out of their homes.
There were flashpoints of chaos from Banff and Canmore and Crowsnest Pass in the Rockies, to Calgary and beyond in the north and south to Lethbridge.
The flooding was particularly destructive in communities just south of Calgary such as High River, Turner Valley and Black Diamond, where the Highwood River swept away two people.
“One female adult had been stranded on a trailer and also a second adult male had been stranded on a nearby flatbed,” said Cam Heke of STARS air ambulance.
“We did respond to the area. The female adult was no longer on the trailer and was missing. We did conduct a search along the river and we were unable to locate that missing person.
“However, the male adult was on the trailer and local emergency services with another helicopter organization . . . were able to rescue that man.”
In High River, the water trapped residents in their cars and forced others to flee to the rooftops of their homes. Streets became tributaries, swamping vehicles.
Danielle Smith, a Highwood resident and Wildrose Opposition leader in the legislature, said she and other residents frantically sandbagged around the hospital, but could not keep water from rushing past the doors, forcing patients to higher floors.
“I’ve been talking to people who have been here for 35 years or more who saw the 2005 flood, who saw the 1995 flood, and say this is way worse,” Smith told CHQR radio station in Calgary.
The province reported that 12 communities were under states of emergency.
Environment Canada issued a rainfall warning for the affected areas, estimating as much as 100 mm more rain could fall in the next two days.
Highways north and south of Banff were also closed.
In Calgary, residents in six low-lying neighbourhoods were ordered out of their homes by mid-afternoon and told to be prepared to be out for three days. Police, fire and other officials were going door-to-door to help residents out of their homes.
There was sandbagging in some locations as the Bow and Elbow rivers kept rising.
The military has been brought in to help deal with the flood fallout.
Troops packed up their equipment and supplies at CFB Edmonton and then drove down to Calgary in a convoy of military vehicles.
About 600 Canadian Forces members are already en route to lend a hand in the hardest-hit areas of Alberta, with another 600 preparing to deploy by the end of the day.
The soldiers are a mix of regular troops and reservists from Edmonton and are being sent to High River, Canmore and Kananaskis.
The RCMP has also requested four aircraft from the Department of National Defence and currently two helicopters have been deployed.
They are also using two civilian aircraft, an RCMP helicopter and a fixed wing airplace for air support.
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