Alberta, Canada June 2013

Flying to Alberta, Canada in June to visit my parents and sisters, I had a number of people exclaim that they hoped I was not going to Calgary. A state of emergency had been declared in the city following historic flooding due to a record snowfall in the Rocky Mountains combined with an extremely rainy month of June.

Elbow River in flood

I was indeed headed for Calgary, where my sister Mary lives in Lakeview, a district so unaffected by the flooding that TV filming of the disaster in the other Calgary districts of Bowness and Elbow Park looked like images of third world disasters from the opposite side of the world.

Bow River, Calgary

The first two days of our time together, Mary and I obeyed the authorities injunctions to stay away (so that emergency crews were not hindered by traffic blocking their way to flooded areas). But on Wednesday June 27 we rode our bikes to a deserted downtown (power was out so most companies were closed).

Lorna and Mary with "Head"

We were alone most of our time in the plaza where Mary's daughter Jennifer works, exploring the many angles to view the large “Head in Thought.”

Inside the "Head"

Crossing to the Elbow River bike path, we discovered a river swollen to many times its normal size (even though it had obviously gone down considerably as evidenced by the collapsed banks and by the debris left high in trees and on bridges.

Flood damage and closed bike path, Calgary

A twisted and destroyed bike-and-pedestrian bridge was blocked by plywood and guarded by a policewoman, in case any one was as foolish as the canoeists who had launched into the flood-level Bow River and had to be rescued, prompting the mayor to exclaim that he had thought it unnecessary but would now declare that “the river is closed!”

Mary at blocked off bike path

Thursday Mary and I drove across the city to her friend Heidi's home in the Bowness district, concerned that Heidi and her daughter would be returning from Africa having learned of the flood only the night before when they regained Internet connections.

Mary, in boots, prepared to join Heidi's friends cleaning up flood damage at Heidi's home

We found Bowness streets muddy ...and parking at a premium, since city vehicles and people coming to help all needed spaces, and homeowners needed to keep access to mountains of debris hauled out from their homes if dump trucks were to be able to haul it away.

Sink hole between Heidi's fence (with muddy stuffed animal) and neighbor's house

The normally quiet residential streets were as active as a festival although the people were in recovery attire - rubber boots, work gloves and with breathing masks over their mouths and noses.  Residents had been advised to put signs in their windows telling what they needed.

Flood victims were asked to post their needs in their windows

At Heidi's we found a crowd – her co-workers, soccer team-mates and friends had hauled everything from her basement, spreading potentially salvageable items across the lawn and heaping non-salvageable trash into a mountain of muddy bulges in the driveway and edge of the street.

Heidi's backyard

Someone finished with the hose, so I coiled and carried the lengths around the house so that Mary and I could clean objects in the driveway and on the lawn – car carrier

Mary with hose

mirrors from the bar, liquor bottles

and silver tea set

Later, a couple from an unaffected district approached us to offer help and spent several hours with us, peeling photographs out of clay and washing them in buckets where the water quickly turned brown as the river.

Mary sweeping

We had barely started work when people in the street approached us, offering food.

Grub Wagon

had brought a water bottle and several granola bars, but throughout our work, the “grub wagon” mother and child and many other adults and children from unscathed areas of the city brought bottles of cold water, fruit, cookies, sandwiches and muffins. Stations set up on street corners were laden with food, drink, work gloves, and masks, with porta-potties nearby.

Mary at food station

Friday evening some young women came by inviting us to a neighborhood party where they would grill Calgary's famous sausage. Meandering down to check it out, we crossed the plank over the Moat, a ditch augmented to about 3 feet deep because of the flooding.

The Moat was not only a 3-foot deep ditch of floodwater, but also the site of a spontaneously organized neighborhood party 

An apparently abandoned lot had been designated “the Moat” - with free beer, tables of food, a large banner across the entrance embellished with the image of a cowboy hat and the message “This is how we giddy-up.”

Mary and Heidi's sister at the neighborhood party Friday evening

People climbed on a ladder to add their thoughts to the banner; others wrote on big poster paper tacked to the side of a building -

How have I made a difference today? “ Helping people, not just the cute girls”

A group distributing lunches to workers

What was your favorite moment? “seeing people helping people” “seeing happy newlyweds toasting everyone in front of their flooded home' “knowing we are close now; we are community” “this is the first time in 6 years that I really feel Calgary is my home”

Parking space (here beside the Moat) was a valuable resource, especially as dump trucks had to get access to your debris if you wanted it taken away

What made you cry? “strangers coming to help us out” “orphans in Cambodia donating to help us”

Cleaned stuff is laid out to dry

“seeing an elderly man pull a dry photograph from a flooded basement and finding it was of his wedding in World War II Germany”

Sign from a flood victim

What gives you hope? “What we are going to build here!”