Two confirmed dead, one missing; Saddledome under water as hundreds of soldiers head to flood zone

Bill Graveland, Lauren Krugel and Donna Spencer, Canadian Press | 13/06/21 | Last Updated: 13/06/21 8:58 PM ET

Tijana Martin/ Calgary HeraldThe flooded streets in Calgary near Riverfront Ave SE and 1st ST SE

is photographed on Friday, June 21, 2013

Alberta flooding: Latest updates

• The floods are already record-setting, hydrologists say
• Alberta has issued critical alerts for the following areas; find detailed alerts here: Banff, South of Twin Valley Reservoir, Calgary, Lethbridge County, Bragg Creek, Vulcan County, Foothills #31, Stoney Reserve #142 143 144, Turner Valley, High River, Black Diamond
• Communities that are being evacuated in and around Calgary, for most updated list click here:
  Beltline, Bonnybrook, Bowness, Bridgeland, Chinatown/Eau Claire, Cliff Bungalow, Deer Run, Discovery Ridge, Douglasdale, Downtown/East Village, Elbow Park, Erlton, Inglewood, Hillhurst, Mission, Montgomery, Quarry Park, Rideau, Riverbend, Riverdale, Roxboro, Stanley Park/Elboya, Sunnyside, Victoria Park, Westmount/West Hillhurst, Windsor Park
• Power has been shut off in evacuated communities
• All Calgary schools are closed on Friday
• Transit service in the core has been cancelled
• No deaths have been reported, although one woman swept away with a mobile home was still missing
• A large area south of Calgary has declared a state of emergency, with bridges and roads washed out in many towns.

Live: Floods in Calgary and southern Alberta force thousands to evacuate
Pictures and videos of massive flooding in Canmore and southern Alberta
Alberta’s largest city was swamped Friday by floodwaters that submerged much of the lower bowl of the Saddledome hockey arena, displaced tens of thousands of people and forced the evacuation of the downtown core.
Mounties reported up to four people in flooded areas south of the city may have died. Two bodies were recovered Friday from the Highwood River near High River, Alta.
A woman who was reported missing after she was swept away with her camper into the Highwood River near Longview remains unaccounted for, while it wasn’t clear whether a man who was seen falling out of a canoe was able to climb back in.
Communities throughout southern Alberta continued to fight a watery onslaught that began with torrential rains Wednesday night. From Canmore and Banff in the mountain parks through to Calgary and points east, overflowing rivers continued to wash out roads and bridges, inundated homes and turned streets into dirt-brown tributaries thick with smashed trees and furniture.
“Get away from the river now!” a police officer in a helicopter bellowed to residents in the low-lying Calgary neighbourhood of Sunnyside as they surveyed torrents of water that invaded their homes and sent everything from garbage cans to cars floating away.
Stephen Harper says as an Albertan, he never imagined there could be a flood of such magnitude in this part of Canada.
The prime minister, flanked by Alberta Premier Alison Redford, and Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi, has spoken to reporters in Calgary where is is touring the region’s hardest-hit areas.
He says he knows residents are going through a “very difficult time” but promised that down the road life would get back to normal, urging everyone to stay optimistic.
He says the federal government has provided aid by deploying the military and providing equipment.
He and Redford say there will be funding available under provincial and federal disaster assistance programs under the usual formulas for such incidents.
Harper says for now it appears the flooding has peaked and stabilized, but he adds there are always fears that more water could have an impact on infrastructure.

PMO Photo by Jason RansomPrime Minister Stephen Harper goes on an aerial tour of 

High River, Alberta, surveying flood damage.

Calgary was dealing with a double whammy of overflowing water from two rivers that run through the city and converge downtown.
An estimated 75,000 residents in 25 neighbourhoods along the rivers had already been ordered out of their homes and, early Friday afternoon, that order was extended to the entire downtown.
About 350,000 people work in the downtown, but only a small fraction of them were there Friday. Office towers were ordered closed before the high water took hold.
City officials confirmed water had swamped the interior of the Saddledome, home to the NHL’s Calgary Flames.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntoshPrime Minister Stephen Harper, far right, looks 

at a map of the flooded areas of Calgary with Alberta Premier Alison Redford, centre, 

and Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi, as fire chief Bruce Burrell points out problem sites. 

Heavy rains have caused flooding, closed roads, and forced evacuation in Calgary, Alta.,

Friday, June 21, 2013.

 

It was up to the roofs of the chuckwagon barns at the grounds for the world-famous Calgary Stampede fair, which begins in two weeks.
Residents were left to wander and wade through streets waist-deep in water.
“In all the years I’ve been down here, I’ve never seen the water this high,” said Sunnyside resident John Doherty.
“I’ve got two antique pianos in the garage that I was going to rebuild and they’re probably under water,” he said. “We’re shell-shocked.”

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntoshThe flooded Calgary Stampede grounds and Saddledome in 

Calgary Friday. 

 

About 1,500 evacuees were in emergency shelters, while the rest found shelter with family or friends, said Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi.
The flood was forcing emergency plans at the Calgary Zoo, which is situated on an island near where the Elbow and Bow rivers meet. Lions and tigers and other exotic carnivores were being prepared for transfer, if necessary, to prisoner holding cells at the courthouse.
Schools and court trials were cancelled and residents urged to avoid downtown. Transit service in the core was not running. Power and gas were shut off to affected areas, but some homes not in the water zone also lost utilities due to the way the system is set up.

ADAM KLAMAR/AFP/Getty ImagesAs many as 100,000 people have been forced from their homes.

 

The Conservative Convention was due to be held in Calgary over three days starting next Thursday. Party officials on Friday said they’re monitoring the flooding and will update delegates on any potential delays or cancellations of the conference on Monday.
Nenshi said the situation was under control as much as it could be.
He explained that water levels on the Elbow River had crested and were slowly going down.
“That doesn’t mean there won’t be another peak as surge waters come, but it does mean today, at this moment, we’re slowly seeing the numbers go down,” he told a news conference.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntoshThe Calgary Stampede rodeo grounds are flooded due to the 

heavy rains have caused flooding, closed roads, and forced evacuation in Calgary, Alta., Friday, June 

21, 2013. 

 

He suggested that levels on the Bow River — which, in Nenshi’s words, looked like an ocean — would remain steady for the rest of the day as long as conditions didn’t change.
It had been a wet week throughout much of Alberta, but on Wednesday and Thursday, the Bow River Basin was battered with up to 100 millimetres of rain. Environment Canada’s forecast called for more rain in the area, but in much smaller amounts.
More than a dozen towns declared states of emergency. Entire communities, including High River and Bragg Creek, near Calgary were under mandatory evacuation orders. The water washed out roads and bridges and flooded underpasses. Trains were running over bridge decks just inches above the water line.
No deaths have been reported since torrential rains hit the region Wednesday night, although one woman swept away with a mobile home near Black Diamond was still missing.
RCMP Sgt. Patricia Neely said officers were also investigating a report of two males floating near High River.

Gavin Young/Calgary Herald Inglewood residents team up to work on a dyke to protect their 

 neighbourhood from rising flood waters near the confluence of the Elbow and Bow Rivers on 

Friday morning June 21, 2013.

 

“We had a report, and it was a credible report, that somebody had seen two male bodies in the river. Now we have not recovered any bodies. We have no reports of missing persons, but we are definitely investigating this as a credible sighting.”
One of the hardest-hit areas was High River, where it was estimated half the people experienced flooding in their homes. In some houses, water was halfway up the front door.
Military helicopters plucked about 30 residents off rooftops. Others were rescued by boat. Some swam for their lives from stranded cars, while still more were ferried to safety in large dump trucks, front-end loaders and combines.
Phone service was cut off and cellphone coverage was spotty.
A spokesperson for federal Defence Minister Peter MacKay said hundreds of soldiers were being deployed to the flood zone.
High River resident Danielle Smith, leader of Alberta’s Opposition Wildrose party, posted on Facebook that she spent much of Thursday sandbagging at the hospital as floods swamped the town.

“Rescued by some guys operating a manure spreader at about 7 p.m. We spent two hours picking up people from their homes. It was wild and frightening,” she wrote.
Farther west, in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains, pictures from the mountain town of Canmore depicted a raging creek-turned-river ripping at house foundations.
A spokeswoman for the town, where hundreds were forced from their homes, said Cougar Creek had changed its course several times and was heading to a new neighbourhood.
“There’s a lot of debris in the creek and if the debris gets backed up and piles up … then the creek re-routes itself very quickly around that debris,” said Sally Caudill.
Officials were also ordering residents out of parts of Banff.

Colleen De Neve/Calgary Herald A pedestrian walked through the floodwaters along Macleod Trail 

in the Beltline area of Calgary Friday.

 

Redford, speaking to reporters in Calgary, promised the province will help flood victims put their lives back together and provide financial aid to communities that need to rebuild.
She called the flooding an “absolutely tragic situation” and admitted to personal concern for her constituency of Calgary Elbow, which lies along one of the rivers raging.
Redford said she visited the area Thursday night.
“I took a look at property and community down there, and I’ve got to tell you: standing on a bridge, in the dark, when the power is out, listening to the roar of the river is terrifying.”
The premier warned that communities downstream of Calgary were yet to feel the full force of the floodwaters.
In anticipation of that, the city of Medicine Hat in the province’s southeast declared a state of emergency. Officials expect the South Saskatchewan River to crest on Saturday.

Related

• Alberta flood washes an entire house down Bragg Creek: Video