Wild and Wet

It's been a wild and wet week in Alberta.  A combination of a long winter, lots of snow, a heavy snowcap in the mountains, and extraordinary amounts of rain in a small amount of time have caused flooding in much of the province...the worse anyone has ever seen in what used to be a dry sunny province.  It happened so quickly and without much warning that towns and cities were caught by surprise.

I didn't get any pictures but the news is full of them.  Calgary seemed to be the hardest hit with a large portion of this large city flooded...many neighbourhoods under mandatory evacuation notice.  Small towns for miles around suffered huge flood losses.  In Canmore, near Banff, whole sections of the main highway were washed away along with a number of houses.

In Lethbridge, where we were all week, we had lots of rain, hail, thunder storms and more rain, but the city is largely protected from the rising floodwaters by the coolees - steep high banks that separate the city from the river.  Luckily our house remained watertight.

We drove back to Edmonton (500 kilometers north) yesterday.  Following our usual route, we were forced to detour through Calgary as two of the bridges we needed to cross were under water.  There was evidence of flooding wherever we went.  In Calgary itself, the highway that fast tracks traffic through the city was closed and flooded in the southbound lane, but luckily for us, the northbound was still open and dry, although in places the water was right up to the shoulders of the road.

I haven't heard any counts of damage costs but it'll be in the millions.  There have been no reports of loss of life yet either, thank goodness.

Just when we think we're safe in our lives and homes, Mother Nature decides to remind us that we are merely passengers on this planet and not as nearly in control as we'd like to think.