Flood warnings were issued on June 19th, 2013 in Southern Alberta, but nobody anticipated what was going to occur. A rain system blew into Alberta from the south and hung over the Rocky Mountain slopes. Rainfalls exceeded 200 mm, and in some locations, up to 300 mm fell over the next couple of days. The rain, in combination with snow melt from the Rockies resulted in catastrophic flooding in Southern Alberta. At least 27 municipalities declared flood emergencies.
The first we heard about the flooding was at a SWANA Northern Lights Chapter Annual Conference in Edmonton on June 20. That morning, the Town of Canmore was under an emergency situation. Their emergency coordinator was at the SWANA conference and couldn't get back to Canmore. Many of our delegates from Southern Alberta headed out before noon to get back to their communities to deal with the impending floods.
It wasn't too long before we started hearing about flooding in the City of Calgary. Nearly 75,000 residents in Calgary had to evacuate and downtown Calgary was evacuated. The Saddledome, Calgary's hockey arena was flooded up to the 16th row. It was mind boggling news to all Albertan's.
At the time, the news media was focussed on Calgary, but many other communities were being affected by the flood. One of the worst hit communities was the Town of High River (population 13,000), about 57 km south of Calgary. The high river waters rapidly engulfed the Town and there were many harrowing stories of residents escaping flood waters. The rescue scenes in High River were startling. People were being rescued from balconies and roof tops with wheel loaders and carried out of town in rock trucks. Typical of what you would see in a prairie town, some were rescued in combines. Anything that could get through the lake that was formed in the Town. High River was completely evacuated and nearly 90 percent of the Town was effected by flood waters. Only a few homes escaped the rising water.
A few days after the waters receded in High River, I received a call from John Deagle, the manager of the Foothills Regional Landfill. John needed help. My employer, the City of Edmonton, was generous to let me go to help out in any way that I could.
My first view of the clean up of flood debris was a one kilometer long line of traffic on the highway waiting to get into the landfill. After meeting with John, he took me out on the landfill and I got my second impression of the debris. This stuff was very mixed and recovering anything out of the mess looked to be futile. As I watched the succession of trucks cross the scale, it struck me that these were trucks full of peoples lives that were going by.
Later in the day, I was able to see the devastation in Town and it was beyond imagination. There were damaged houses, railway tracks twisted like a roller coaster, and pavement lifted off streets and debris everywhere. The entire downtown core was out of business and covered with mud. Only a few business in town escaped the flood, and fortunately one of those was the Tim Hortons. Driving through the residential areas, there were piles and more piles of debris being put out on the street by residents and volunteers cleaning out basements, first floors, and some second floors. The size of the debris piles in front of each house was truly hard to describe. It was hard not to become emotional to the impact on peoples lives.
One of the most impressive scenes was the myriad of volunteers that came from all parts of Alberta and beyond to help. Many were dressed in Tyvek coveralls and covered in the muck the carried out of the houses in buckets. It was obvious that the home-owners would not be able to manage without the heroic efforts of the volunteers. At one point, there were over 4,000 volunteers a day going in and out of Town. Because this is the age of social media, and in particular, twitter, volunteers were rapidly contacted and organized.
Another group of people that are sometimes overlooked in these situations is the public servants. I was more than impressed at their dedication to get their community and the residents back to some sense of normality. What was amazing to me was that the people who worked at the landfill, and had their own homes flooded and families displaced, were still dedicated to the job that had to be done, and never used their problems as an excuse.”This really made me appreciate what a "public servant' really means.
Helping Out
My role was to help and support the landfill manager and his staff. I provided some relief for John so he could get some rest after working 7 days straight for 16 hours a day. Through SWANA contacts, we were able to arrange for some relief help with an equipment operator from another landfill. I also attended daily briefings at the EOC with John, and on his behalf when he couldn't be there. In this meeting, we were able to coordinate the collection and transport of debris from the streets with the landfill operations. This gave me a more in depth understanding of the inner workings of the clean up efforts.
When I first arrived at the landfill, the staff was highly stressed because of the pressures in managing the situation and they had received little help before I arrived. I realized very quickly that what they needed was a calm voice. The landfill manager and all the staff didn't need anyone coming in to tell them what to do: they knew what they had to do, but they needed someone to take away some of the 'clutter', and they didn't need another person to get over excited. I think being from the outside made it easier and I think I was able to help bring some calm into the middle of what seemed like chaos, and also helped bring a calm voice into the EOC meetings. Sometimes helping with the small things, like making lunch and taking lunch out to the scale house staff, may not seem like a big thing, but I truly believe that even those little things that a person does in these situations has a huge positive impact. Along with this, I was able to give advice, feedback, and support to the staff in dealing with the numerous issues that came up. Sometimes that was dealing with a difficult person so that the site managers could deal with other pressing issues.
Proud to Have Helped
“I feel proud and honoured to have been asked to help. We made up some badges at the site to identify staff. Mine said "Foothills Regional Waste Management Commission - Special Landfill Advisor" and I also have a Foothills Flood 2013 EOC access badge. I keep them hanging in my office and I think of them both as badges of honour.
SWANA
I want to mention SWANA. After a wildfire that burned over 300 homes in the Town of Slave Lake and during this flood event, I was looking for resources and information. I found the quickest way to do that is call SWANA and they put out an email call to SWANA members and Chapters. In both cases, I received calls and emails from all across North America within the first day with offers to help and with advice. There are many SWANA members who have dealt with the aftermath of disasters and who can provide invaluable support. Our Northern Lights Chapter has put a large effort into helping communities address disasters and has formed a 'Crisis Committee" where we can pool resources of our Chapter members and those who have gone through these experiences when they are needed.
We Need a Plan
One of the things I have come to realize out of this disaster and the Slave Lake disaster is that these situations can occur in any community. It certainly has in Edmonton where I live with an F-4 tornado in 1987 and flooding that has occurred from heavy downpours. What we all need to have is a PLAN and be PREPARED.
A couple of days before I left the scene in High River, I was standing on a mound with John at the landfill looking at the line up of traffic hauling flood debris and watching the operators doing an excellent job to keep the trucks moving in the rain. I took out my cell phone and called my boss. I remember my first words to him on that call "We need a Plan".