Flood!!

I am really behind on my blogging, so I will do a few posts to catch up!  First of all I wanted to mention the crazy Floods that happened here in Calgary at the end of June... I believe it was June 20-21 when the real damage hit.  Downtown and a lot of other communities in Calgary were completely flooded out, as well as High River which seems to have received the worst damage of all!  It is absolutely insane how much water filled up these areas.  The worst recorded flood in the city of Calgary for sure!  We felt blessed to be living on higher ground so we were not directly affected, but we definitely watched the river near us getting higher and higher!  Here's some pictures we took of it while we were out driving, even though everyone was told to stay at home, there were sure a lot of curious people out there!  The river looks pretty dangerous, and the water was creeping up to Chaparral Valley.

 

It was actually kind of an interesting day just watching the news and hearing how many areas were evacuated, and just how high the water got.  The Zoo was wiped out and the animals were evacuated, the Stampede grounds were totally destroyed, and the Stampede was supposed to start in a few weeks!  I was supposed to run in the "Color Me Rad" run a week or so later, but that was cancelled.  School was cancelled for the remainder of the year - so they all finished early! The damage was terrible in many areas.  And people were getting nervous about food and water supply.  We went to a few stores, and everywhere was sold out of water and the food necessities!  Esso was selling water for $100 a case!  It made me feel really at peace that we at least had our food storage!  Kind of a wake up call for everyone, since you never know how fast life can change!

Once things settled down, there were many opportunities to serve and help those who were affected!  I never actually got out to the sites, but I donated a lot of food, and hygiene items, clothing, toys, did flood victims laundry, and cleaned the "Command Center" in Okotoks.  I was completely amazed though at how much everyone put into helping out.  What a great opportunity.  I was so impressed with how the church ran things so efficiently.  They even encourage people to attend a short Sacrament meeting on Sundays, and then head out and work at the houses the rest of the day.  We were away on vacation for a lot of that time, so we felt bad missing out.  There are still things to be done, but not nearly what there was before.  I definitely feel bad for all the people that have been out of there homes, and some are still not able to return and will have to build again from scratch.  It's very interesting though that a moment like this brings out the good in humanity, and shows the power of God!