F off Rain

[Reaper]

Originally posted by fotze+Jun 7 2005, 09:59 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (fotze @ Jun 7 2005, 09:59 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-habernac@Jun 7 2005, 09:56 AM
someone here at work told me High River is flooding, anyone down south that can confirm that?

Did you see on the news last night the high river residents being shocked by the river. Did you guys check the name of your town when you moved in. Probably named that for a reason. Good thing they don;t live in Floodsville [/b][/quote]
And you almost always see these people on the news crying their eyes out because:

1) They live on a flood plain
2) They've had their home destroyed by a flood before
3) They don't have flood insurance!

And they almost always say they won't move away and they will rebuild.

[habernac]

LOL!

It's like people in the mountains being shocked by seeing snow fall there. Or like the family in Wyoming who had to move from their dream home near the mountains because of all the scary wildlife that was there.

[JohnnyO]

My car had a freakin 2" puddle of water on the drivers side floor. I have a leak somewhere in the door frame or firewall. I had to use the shop vac to soak up the water. I so need a new car!!

But the best was the dude I saw on Memorial NW riding his motor bike, ringing his gloves out at each light.

[RedHot25]

Ahhh, this really reminds me of Vancouver....maybe even worse.....!

[Eagle Eye]

Originally posted by transplant99@Jun 7 2005, 08:54 AM
Thats nothin!!

Last year when we went through the remnants of Hurricanes Francis and Ivan...we got rain fall totals of 17" and 19" repectively.

Just to put that in perspective, thats a total of 36", or 3 ft of rain, or in metric terms


914.40 millimeters.

Like nothing i had ever seen or want to see again..and that was WAY less than what fell in Florida and Alabama.

Thats probably deeper than any river in Alberta, lol

[Cowperson]

Originally posted by Reaper+Jun 7 2005, 04:04 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Reaper @ Jun 7 2005, 04:04 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>

Did you see on the news last night the high river residents being shocked by the river. Did you guys check the name of your town when you moved in. Probably named that for a reason. Good thing they don;t live in Floodsville

And you almost always see these people on the news crying their eyes out because:

1) They live on a flood plain
2) They've had their home destroyed by a flood before
3) They don't have flood insurance!

And they almost always say they won't move away and they will rebuild. [/b][/quote]
I'm in High River right now and the water is gushing against the railway bridge, only a couple of feet below the dike that protects the downtown.

One street downtown is blocked off and underwater because the storm sewers can't take the runoff.

I would expect the downtown to be underwater by the end of the day . . . from a layman's eye it looks that way anyway.

If you go a mile west of Okotoks along Highway 549, the Sheep River is over the banks and spreading across the plain against the railway tracks.

And I thought England was wet the last few weeks!!

ADDENDUM . . . . Someone just said police aren't allowing heavy trucks over the bridge in High River now and the water is over the railway bridge.

Gurgle!!

Cowperson

[dustygoon]

Originally posted by Cowperson+Jun 7 2005, 04:21 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Cowperson @ Jun 7 2005, 04:21 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>

And you almost always see these people on the news crying their eyes out because:

1) They live on a flood plain
2) They've had their home destroyed by a flood before
3) They don't have flood insurance!

And they almost always say they won't move away and they will rebuild.

I'm in High River right now and the water is gushing against the railway bridge, only a couple of feet below the dike that protects the downtown.

One street downtown is blocked off and underwater because the storm sewers can't take the runoff.

I would expect the downtown to be underwater by the end of the day . . . from a layman's eye it looks that way anyway.

If you go a mile west of Okotoks along Highway 549, the Sheep River is over the banks and spreading across the plain against the railway tracks.

And I thought England was wet the last few weeks!!

ADDENDUM . . . . Someone just said police aren't allowing heavy trucks over the bridge in High River now and the water is over the railway bridge.

Gurgle!!

Cowperson [/b][/quote]
Cow....swim the hell out of there while you still can.

Lately it seems each year has such weather extremes.....forest fires or floods. Nothing in between.

[Bean]

I've been a city boy my whole life so I don't really understand what you are going through.

Cow, why haven't you evacuated yet?

[Bean]

Just a thought, is there a transcript available for the weather warnings that are coming up on the radio stations today?

I don't know what it is, but it just seems like something worse will come out of all this rain.

[Tron_fdc]

My old man lives along the sheep west of Okotoks......we might have to send out the company backhoe and a few skid steers to dig out a dyke so his house doesn't get washed away.

I grew up in Okotoks, and I seem to recall something about a hundred year flood that happened back in the 80's that was similar to this. Anyone in that area remember anything on it? I wonder how bad this one is going to be?

[Cowperson]

Originally posted by Bean@Jun 7 2005, 05:13 PM
I've been a city boy my whole life so I don't really understand what you are going through.

Cow, why haven't you evacuated yet?

I'm having my server shut down remotely and I'll lift the equipment to a higher place in the building as a precaution. Other people here might need some help elevating things so I'll stick around. Some businesses have closed but most are still open.

Don't worry. It won't be a gushing tsunami or anything. In 1995, it measured about one foot on the walls. Damaging though. If it happens.

The water is up to the top of the curb all along main street now . . . . but that's just the storm sewers backing up and not the river coming over the banks.


Is there a high river webcam

99.9% of the time that would be a very boring webcam.

Cowperson

[KevanGuy]

Originally posted by Bean@Jun 7 2005, 11:20 AM
Just a thought, is there a transcript available for the weather warnings that are coming up on the radio stations today?

http://www.weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/wa...arnings_e.html

[transplant99]

I assume you mean 1 foot on the walls where you are now Cow?

When I went thru the 95 debacle, the water was well over 4 ft up in the business i owned. In fact when i arrived in town that morning i had to canoe into it...in fact had a Calgary Herald photographer in the boat with me to document things. Of course this wasnt directly downtown either, and much close to the river.

I also recall that there was a culvert at the end of a street (name escapes me right now) that had a bridge over it to that little 9 hole golf course, and the whole bridge was gone...completely.

Water does SO much damage its hard to fathom until witnessed with your own eyes.

[Cowperson]

Originally posted by transplant99@Jun 7 2005, 05:35 PM
I assume you mean 1 foot on the walls where you are now Cow?

When I went thru the 95 debacle, the water was well over 4 ft up in the business i owned. In fact when i arrived in town that morning i had to canoe into it...in fact had a Calgary Herald photographer in the boat with me to document things. Of course this wasnt directly downtown either, and much close to the river.

I also recall that there was a culvert at the end of a street (name escapes me right now) that had a bridge over it to that little 9 hole golf course, and the whole bridge was gone...completely.

Water does SO much damage its hard to fathom until witnessed with your own eyes.

To clarify, the person running this joint - where I settle a few days a week - had an expectation we might see a foot or two up the wall if it happens and said that was the extent of damage in 1995, which was a one in 100 year event . . . nothing has happened as of yet. He wasn't here in 1995 though.

In 1995, I left town about 4 in the evening and the water was lower on the bridges than it is now. I got home, flipped on the 5 p.m. news and there was High River underwater and, as you say, good for canoeing.

It didn't take long.

EDIT - sorry, my bad - the bridge you're talking about is on the east side of the Rio Vista golf course (what a murderous course that is!!). Not sure what's happening over there. The town has put in a lot of new anti-flood measures, including an imposing drainage canal. Maybe they'll work. But they divert the water out and under the bridge you're talking about.

I hear the secondary highway out by Cargill is nearly cut in half. That's no where near the river. Just a big puddle.

Cowperson

[Bean]

Originally posted by KevanGuy+Jun 7 2005, 05:33 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (KevanGuy @ Jun 7 2005, 05:33 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteBegin-Bean@Jun 7 2005, 11:20 AM
Just a thought, is there a transcript available for the weather warnings that are coming up on the radio stations today?

http://www.weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/wa...arnings_e.html[/b][/quote]
I was already looking at that but I couldn't fully decipher what was being said on the radio and thought that there could be another source of info.

Thanks anyways KG!


Either way, I wish all of those in the affected communities well during these upcoming wet days.

[Eddie Bronze]

Huh, it was only two weeks or even a bit less when I was getting all this info from friends back home in Nova Scotia about how bad it was there. Flooding everywhere. My friends and some family live within the area that the warnings were being given for. They received 2 months worth of rain (what you normally get in NS) in less than 48 hours. I sent them an email back of a screen shot of Calgary's weather, prediciting nothing but sun and 20+ temps for the following 5 days. Talk about a jinx.

[Buff]

All this rain and flooding is similar to a car accident. You don't want to it happen but you really want to see it when it happens.

I went home at lunch and my house is fortunately as dry as a ghost, but unfortunately for my boss his sump pump stopped working and he began to get some flooding.

[BlackArcher101]

Originally posted by KevanGuy+Jun 7 2005, 10:33 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (KevanGuy @ Jun 7 2005, 10:33 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-Bean@Jun 7 2005, 11:20 AM
Just a thought, is there a transcript available for the weather warnings that are coming up on the radio stations today?

http://www.weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/wa...arnings_e.html [/b][/quote]
http://www3.gov.ab.ca/env/water/ws/advisories/

[Coelah]

Originally posted by Buff@Jun 7 2005, 01:35 PM
All this rain and flooding is similar to a car accident. You don't want to it happen but you really want to see it when it happens.

I went home at lunch and my house is fortunately as dry as a ghost, but unfortunately for my boss his sump pump stopped working and he began to get some flooding.

That sucks. 3 years ago my buddy got flooded out of his basement because he had unplugged his sump pump. Why? I have no idea.

I have 2 pumps in my basement. Just looked in them and they're 3/4 full with water but haven't kicked on yet. I'm hoping they take care of the excess and there are no leaks. I just put in a new bathroom downstairs and new lino and carpet 6 months ago. That heavy rainfall 3 years ago had a bunch of water seeping through the walls and cracks on the floor.

[Cowperson]

Well, I pulled the chute on High River . . . . no change when I left but everyone got things hoisted off the floor. I left my server and power box about five feet high so hopefully that's good enough. Businesses downtown are closing down.

There's a pretty awesome sight just west of Okotoks though. The Sheep River is way over its banks and fanned out over the country like I've never seen it before. It looks like the flood description in The Grapes Of Wrath.

I was talking to a guy who had been talking to the mayor of Okotoks - the proverbial third hand information so take it for what its worth - and apparently the feeling is the worst is yet to come as the rain is melting the snow pack in the mountains and that's yet to show up. The Mayor, as relayed through this chap, feels it could be the worst Okotoks has ever seen.

As I was standing on the rail tracks just west of Okotoks and taking some pics, the water was visibly rising and seems certain to go over the tracks and cut off Highway 549. I think that would make it higher than the downtown just a little ways further down.

Its an awesome sight but its probably going to be a tragic one too. If I can get my website cleaned up a bit, I'll post a pic.

Cowperson