Quote:
Originally Posted by Bigtime
It's a good point Slava, however I think the scenario was that nobody on our street had ever been evacuated before. I was out at my daughters soccer wrap up party when the evac notice came through.
I rushed home, grabbed our "go" bag we had packed earlier in the day and took off.
Hindsight is 20/20 for sure when it comes to moving stuff up to higher ground and staying past the "deadline" of 7pm we were given to be out of the neighbourhood.
However my issue is that now homeowners are taking personal responsibility and mitigating their homes so that we don't end up with garbage mountains on the streets come the next flood. If we are stepping up and taking that responsibility will our various levels of government do what they can to mitigate the effects of future floods? It's not good business to have downtown Calgary closed for a week again.
|
Well the evacuation undoubtedly was unexpected and causes a bunch of problems. I totally agree that as a city we have to do something to ensure that we don't have downtown closed for a week, and the accompanying business disruptions that come with that.
Like I say, people should be compensated for losses because the extent of the damages was unforeseen and in many cases unpreventable. People who had never seen potential flooding in their communities were suddenly evacuated, and that is at least a rarity (hopefully) if not a once in a lifetime event. Then we have other people who live on a floodplain, and have seen flooding in the last decade, and seemingly took no steps to move valuables or keepsakes to higher ground. I do have some empathy for these people, but its hard to feel any real sympathy if that makes sense.