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This is seriously insane! Makes the 2005 floods look like a minor inconvience by comparison...
The city of Calgary was shut down today due to the rising water levels. The downtown's been mostly evacuated & flooded. And the Saddledome, home of the Calgary Flames is flooded up to the first 10 rows of seats! (apparently the giant central scoreboard has been stored... in the basement - oops!)

http://news.ca.msn.com/top-stories/calgary-flood-alberta-residents-describe-what-theyre-seeing





Hope all you Dakkites out in southern Alberta stay safe!

wife mention this last night. Since I was on some serious pain killers I was thinking the "Ole Miss" went over here berms again. Hope all comes out on the good hands.

Ye reap what ye frack...

I'm in Lethbridge right now, and apparently a lot of people have entered survival mode, since it's supposedly pretty bad down here too (although I can't really tell from my apartment, since it's about as far away from the actual floodable areas of the city as you can get).

My parents in Calgary were supposed to be evacuated, but apparently decided not to, and have no electricity. Pretty stupid move on their part, really.

People are apparently stocking up for the long haul. Also fairly interesting, if somewhat disgusting, a friend of mine ended up having to pay $50 for a flat of water.

It'll be interesting to see if similar events happen in the following years, what with the state of climate change.

WE DIDN'T LISTEN!

US need to stop Fracking for more oil in Canada with their sand oil.....

This has nothing to do with the oilsands reservoirs.

Although global warming can certainly be cited as a contributing factor, the sands themselves are not the only thing that should be pointed out in such a case.

Reason I can't hear you Fafnir

 Fafnir wrote:
This has nothing to do with the oilsands reservoirs.

Although global warming can certainly be cited as a contributing factor, the sands themselves are not the only thing that should be pointed out in such a case.

Global Warming is based mainly on junk science and scare mongering... Our planet has gone through many, many naturally occurring warming & cooling trends.
While we're certainly not the most brilliant of thinkers, humans are more responsible for ozone depletion and crap air quality than being the root cause of historic flooding/other weather related disasters.



Anyways, you do have to sit back and look at the rather comical, ironic side of this... For example, the city of High River being flooded by, high river levels!

The big cause of the flooding - those areas have received upwards of 6 months worth of rain within 48-72 hours. And the low pressure system dumping all this rain across Alberta to Winterpeg is stalled in place because over here in Ontarioland to the East Coast have a bubble of high pressure that won't budge.

So while the west turns into a new mini-ocean, we out here are in for a long, dry heat wave with humidex temps pushing north of 40+ degrees!

Talk about a divided country!

The funny thing about High River is that this happens every single year to them, and every year it's on the news as if no one expected it.

Experiment 626 wrote:

 Fafnir wrote:
This has nothing to do with the oilsands reservoirs.

Although global warming can certainly be cited as a contributing factor, the sands themselves are not the only thing that should be pointed out in such a case.

Global Warming is based mainly on junk science and scare mongering... Our planet has gone through many, many naturally occurring warming & cooling trends.

This statement of yours is almost pure bs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_opinion_on_climate_change
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2013/may/16/climate-change-scienceofclimatechange
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2013/05/17/97-percent-of-scientific-studies-agree-on-manmade-global-warming-so-what-now/
http://environment.yale.edu/climate-communication/

Experiment 626 wrote:Anyways, you do have to sit back and look at the rather comical, ironic side of this... For example, the city of High River being flooded by, high river levels!

And that's almost the exact opposite of irony.

Wow, can't believe I missed that one. Misuse of irony is one of my biggest pet peeves.

Got up and went to work in Calgary today. Usually I go through downtown to get to the other side of the city but today was obviously a no go, as were key (for me) places on the other central E-W routes, memorial drive and 16th avenue. So I went south and took glenmore trail. Got a look at the resevoir as i went over the causeway - it looked like someone laid a dirty deuce in a humungous toilet bowl and it was about to overflow. So full. Apparantly the water was going over the dam, which is planned for. Got a look at the Elbow as I went over it - it was a bloated brown rage monster, churning a wide swath in the middle and spilling out wide into parkland on the banks.

Barly lost 5 minutes as the roads were pretty empty. About 10 people didn't show up, and by 9 the boss started sending people in the south home. By lunch, with the TV on in lunchroom showing us the scope, he was like 'anyone who wants to go home, just go, we'll pay you 'till the end of the day'. He looked pretty shaken. Alot of people have lost pretty much everything, and I think it will be a couple of days before it really sinks in for most people the seriousness of what just occured. 75000 evacuated in the city from 25 of its communities, with police and military securing those neighborhoods tonight.

By 2pm I couldn't take the thought of being on the wrong side of the river any longer, and like most had already done, took off. There was only two bridges left open to get me home so I figured I better git 'er dun. I figured glenmore would be a madhouse so I went way north, looping around stoney trail to go over the Bow on a mammoth 4 lane bridge that must be built for a 1000 or 10000 year flood. When I looked eastward, I could see the next bridge up the river, and the water was almost touching the bottom where usually there is a 40' gap. From that height, the Bow looked just like it always does, except for being like waaaaay wider eh.

Then it was up through Olympic Park, past the ski jumps and home, where I bask in the fortune of living on the highest hill in the city! It was keep calm and carry on up here, with the wife taking the girls to playschool and parties. Got a taste of the panic tho. Saw the coolest recon vehicle driving by, probably from Lord Strathcona's Horse, one of the local units, and if someone could tell me what it might have been I'd appreciate it. Prudently filled up the tub, as losing power is a possibility and once that goes you got one flush of your toilet. Bolstered my emergency drinking water supply by filling some empty jugs. Then off to the grocery store - bad luck that we happened to be at the end of a grocery cycle and had no milk, fruit, or veggies. We do keep a comfortable supply of emergency provisions, much more that most, but of course its all dry or canned. Went towards the edge of the city to hit a more expensive grocery store to have maximum chances at supplies, and got there just in time to score the many litres of milk my family drinks. It was going fast, especially the homo, which I need for a real little one. Water of any shape or size was gone. The eggs were going fast so got some of those. The 'normal' loaves of bread were gone, and everything else bread was going. Lots of fruits and veggies, so got a normal amount of that. Line for the gas outside - got some of that too.

Good thing the line at the liqour store was zero. Picked up 12 beers and met the family at a bbq - finished the day off getting half-cut and eating burgers in the sun. Not bad eh. I guess tomorrow I should see if those poor suckers down the hill need any volunteers. Or maybe I'll just pack a picnic and hike down to where I can watch the river for awhile.

TL/DR: Mother Nature kicks ass! And get some food stored up in your house, when people panic even a little bit it disappears fast.

Good video composition of footage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_cXLT4X2UY

Sounds about the perfect time to pop in a copy of The Last of Us if you've still got power

Surprised you had it in you to actually go into town.

I wonder how long it'll take to fix it all. At least the one good thing that'll come out of this is that the Stampede will probably be cancelled.

Seen some odds and sods on the news, Facebook and the like.

Horrible business indeed. Hope all Dakkanauts and their friends and families are all safe and sound.

For some levity:

Calgary has prohibited people from watering their lawns. Keep up the good work there, Calgary.

CALGARY- A city-wide, mandatory outdoor water restriction was issued on Saturday morning, under the Water Utility Bylaw for the city of Calgary.

Effective immediately and until further notice, the use of tap water outdoors is suspended.

The following outdoor activities are prohibited:

Washing outdoor surfaces, exterior building surfaces, sidewalks, driveways, or walkways of any sort.

Watering of lawns, gardens, trees and shrubs by any method; also ensure that sprinklers on timers are turned off.

Using water for filling outdoor decorative features, fountains, pools or hot tubs.

Using water for construction purposes such as grading or compaction.

There are exceptions to the Water Utility Bylaw. They include:

Washing outdoor surfaces for health and safety reasons for childcare facilities, food and beverage establishments and kennel and animal care facilities.

Washing of vehicles to follow health and safety regulations.

Watering of plants, shrubs and trees offered for sale.


Advertisement


Businesses that have a license to operate exterior window washing services and car washes.

Calgarians can continue to use rain water captured in a rain barrel to water outdoors.

The City of Calgary continues to restrict non-essential water use for its own operations.

In addition The City of Calgary continues to request that Calgarians, businesses and regional customers in Strathmore, Chestermere and Airdrie continue to restrict indoor tap water use.

Limit toilet flushing.

Limit showers to five minutes or less and keep baths shallow.

Hold off on doing laundry.

Only use your dishwasher if absolutely necessary and you have a full load.

Turn off taps when brushing teeth or shaving.

Don’t wash your vehicle.

Calgary’s water quality remains good. There is no need to boil water as the tap water is clean and safe to drink. Water treatment plants are fully operational, however systems continue to be challenged to meet demand for water

Yes, I know it's about water conservation, but the message itself is funny.

OUr office there institued its disaster plan. I'm used to getting pics from guys up there of rivers of snow meters high, not water.

It was the rain on top of the snow that was still on the peaks that made this a big one. Something like 250mm of rain (6 months worth!) in 24 hours or so fell on about 100mm of snow.

the flooding was bad, because the city really hasn't done a thing to deal with it, or prepare for it, and 2005 was a warning. The real offense/insult to the citizens of calgary was the bastard that permitted the plan for Discovery Ridge to go through. I went for a walk there last month and was shocked to see that community lay-out and the stream. The entire area SCREAMED "I will flood if it rains", and there were clear-cut hallmarks of where the water rose to just during the melt-season. Add the next little bit, that many of the properties beside that creek had a rather massive dip in their back yard. So much so that they will continue to have a pond for the next few weeks unless it's all pumped out. One road enters the community, comes DOWN the hill, and then back up, meaning in a flash flood, if you're not out in 30 minutes, the only way out is a 6-7 foot community wall.... The communities along the bow, that sucks, but it's the city's fault for not having taken the warning and developed some sort of a safety against the river. Discovery ridge? That's just angering. None of that needed to happen.

Now, for some comic relief:




Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Frazzled wrote:
OUr office there institued its disaster plan. I'm used to getting pics from guys up there of rivers of snow meters high, not water.

which office? You've caught my interest there.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
@ azazel. the NE remained unaffected, as did the far south, a good deal of the NW, along with the west. And do not under-estimate the stupidity of people. There were apparantly a number of train-cars full of people trying to get downtown from the NE that threw hissy-fits about the train not going down-town and not understanding why.....

A bank.

Stay safe and dry, Double Dakkanaughts in the North Lands!