What was supposed to be a quick assignment of rising waters in High River turned into the loss of my car, being evacuated and realizing I’m lucky to be in a community where people care for those in need.
I was in dry Okotoks Thursday morning when I was asked to take pictures and assess the situation in High River as the Highwood River burst its banks.
I set out to get photos and thought Riverside Drive would be a good start because it was being evacuated.
I parked my vehicle, got some pictures and when I drove back, I had no way out. My car stalled in the high water and a stranger with a huge truck hauled me out to slightly higher ground on High Country Drive. I thanked him and noticed I wasn’t the only one stranded. I haven’t seen my car since.
I got a lift to my apartment complex on Fourth Avenue by Al Mouser and there were no problems at home. Totally dry. I file a quick story and plan to grab my bike to investigate the flood.
Not a chance. Thirty minutes from when I entered my place there was a river going down Fourth Avenue. Other tenants were trying to get their vehicles out to higher ground. I don’t know how they made out.
Wayne Keller of the Town of High River spots me and tells me to hop in his truck. He has a woman and small child with him who are looking for their dad.
We drive through High River; debris is flowing rapidly down the streets. Keller is somehow able to find the father and the family is reunited and dropped off with someone to be taken to the evacuation centre.
Keller was attempting to get home, so I jump in the back of a large truck en route to the evacuation centre at Highwood High School.
Attempts to get up 12th Avenue are futile and we must go through the Co-op parking lot and the new Montrose development. Traffic is horrendous and it takes close to an hour to find out we can’t get through.
Suddenly, there is excitement as a man is seen clinging to a pole at the Montrose Bridge. There is a car downstream. It’s painfully obvious a car is just a pricey hunk of metal.
All attention is on the man hanging on for dear-life, who clings to a cell phone in one of his hands.
Jonas Payce from Farmway Machinery leans out to grab the stranded victim’s hand.
“A front-loader came by and we got in,” Payce said. “We got in there and I got worried because I thought we were starting to move. I grabbed his hand and we were able to get him in.”
We end up backtracking and after what I thought was a harrowing drive through flooded streets, I am dropped off at Academy of Learning on 12th Avenue, next to the Hitchin’ Post.
It is being used as a mini-evacuation point to shuttle people to Highwood High School. It’s on about a two-block island.
There is massive flooding west and to the east, in front of the ball diamonds, there is nearly seven feet of water.
A drenched Richard Bischke walks into Academy of Learning. He and his wife had just been evacuated by helicopter bucket from their van.
“I was trying to get down 12th Avenue and it wasn’t too bad but suddenly we started to drift and we ended up in the middle of the field,” he said.
“I wasn’t scared. It was kind of an adventure, but I would have rather gone in the helicopter itself.”
His wife needed medical attention and Bischke did not know where she was.
There was also an elderly gentleman whose oxygen supply was running out.
He was transported to the edge of the water for a boat ride east down 12th Avenue to dry land. I helped carry him from the road to the boat through knee high water.
I hope he is fine.
It’s not just boats being used; a combine from Farmway Machinery is now a transport moving people along 12 Avenue through the seven feet of water. As well, a Smith Corral Cleaners manure truck is hauling about 40 people at a time through the deluge.
I wait patiently to get across. I am relatively healthy, no pets or kids so I am in no rush. The reality is, I didn’t know what I was going to do when I got to the other side.
Meanwhile, all attempts to contact my girlfriend Jill, whose condo is likely flooded on the west end, are fruitless as cell phone coverage is spotty at best.
I wait for quite a while before being taken by boat — along with Payce — down 12th Avenue. With nothing left to do, I head to the High River Fire Hall and I’m bused to Blackie School. Amazingly, one of the first people I run into at the school is Jill. We hug for a long-time, but sadly her cat isn’t with her. My girlfriend had to evacuate from work, not home. As of Saturday, we still didn’t know how the cat was.
We have contacted Heaven Can Wait who is attempting to get to Jill’s likely flooded condo to bail out the cat.
There is one other person I run into in Blackie at about 10:30 p.m.
Bischke.
He was still looking for his wife, but believed she had been evacuated to Nanton.
Jill and I receive great care in Blackie and the Bricker family offers their mobile home for us.
It was new and the Bickers hadn’t even slept in it yet.
We return to Blackie School the next day and Western Wheel assistant editor Darlene Casten gives us a ride into Okotoks.
As of Saturday, Jill and I are being put up in the show room at my dad’s senior citizens facility. It’s gorgeous, clean and dry. They comped us because we are evacuees.
There is more to tell but I have to go now. It’s Saturday afternoon and I got to run. The good folks at Heaven Can Wait and Okotoks Pound Rescue just called and I have to go get Lacey (the cat).
Tears of joy from Jill, despite the loss of a basement and her car.
It’s a reality check.
Things could be a lot worse. Jill and I are feeling like Blanche DuBois from A Streetcar Named Desire whose famous line was:
“I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.”
bcampbell@okotoks.greatwest.ca
