CALGARY, Alberta (AP) — Water levels dropped, providing a measure of
relief to the western Canadian city of Calgary, hit hard by floods
that devastated much of southern Alberta province, causing at least
three deaths and forcing thousands to evacuate.
The flooding forced authorities to evacuate Calgary's entire downtown
and hit some of the city's iconic structures hard. The Saddledome,
home to the National Hockey League's Calgary Flames, was flooded up to
the 10th row, leaving the dressing rooms submerged.
Flames' president and CEO Ken King said Saturday that the Saddledome
is a "real mess," with water still up to row 8 of the lower bowl. He
said the flooding had caused a total loss on the event level with all
mechanical equipment submerged under 15 feet (4.5 meters) of water.
"If you were a hockey player walking out of the tunnel to the ice,
you'd be underwater yourself," he said during a news conference.
Water lapped at the roof of the chuckwagon barns at the grounds of the
Calgary Stampede, which is scheduled to start in two weeks. Calgary
Mayor Naheed Nenshi has said the city will do everything it can to
make sure that the world-renowned party goes ahead.
Bruce Burrell, director of the city's emergency management agency,
said Saturday they are seeing improvements in the rivers. Dan
Limacher, director of water services for the city, said the Elbow
river is expected to recede by about 60 percent over the next two
days, while the larger Bow river will recede by about 25 percent.
The improving conditions Saturday morning prompted Calgary's mayor to
tweet: "It's morning in Calgary! Sunny, water levels are down, and our
spirit remains strong. We're not out of this, but maybe have turned
corner."
However, Nenshi said later Saturday that while the city may have
turned a corner, there is still a state of emergency in effect.
"Flows on Elbow and Bow (rivers) are dropping slowly. We do believe
the peak has passed on the Elbow. However, water levels are still four
times higher than 2005 flood levels," he said during a press
conference.
Overflowing rivers on Thursday and Friday washed out roads and
bridges, soaked homes and turned streets into dirt-brown waterways
around southern Alberta.
High River, southwest of Calgary, was one of the hardest-hit areas and
remained under a mandatory evacuation order. Police said they have
recovered three bodies in the town.
It is estimated that half the people in the town of 13,000 experienced
flooding in their homes. Police cut off access to most of the town and
helicopters circled overhead. Abandoned cars lay submerged in water,
while backhoes worked in vain to push water back from houses.
Police asked residents who were forced to leave the High River area to
register at an evacuation shelter. By Saturday morning, 485 evacuees
had registered at the shelter in Nanton, south of Calgary, and 278
people were on the inquiry list.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Saturday that during rescue and
evacuation efforts on Friday in the High River area, approximately 800
people were evacuated by helicopter along with 100-200 people rescued
by various water craft.
Ed Mailhot, a volunteer in High River, was working to build a database
of registered evacuees and those who are looking for them. Cellphone
service was not restored until late Friday.
"There are a lot of loved ones out there that people can't find, or
they don't know where they are," he said. "It's still chaos."
Alberta Premier Alison Redford has warned that communities downstream
of Calgary have not yet felt the full force of the floodwaters.
Medicine Hat, downstream from Calgary, was under a mandatory
evacuation order affecting 10,000 residents.
As the sun rose in Calgary on Saturday morning it wasn't raining.
Burrell said some of the 75,000 flood evacuees from more than 24
neighborhoods will be allowed back into their homes. He said the goal
is to allow people from portions of six communities back into their
homes on Saturday. Residents of a neighborhood in one of those
communities — the high ground portion of Discovery Ridge —have already
been allowed back.
About 1,500 people in Calgary went to emergency shelters during the
flooding, while the rest of those evacuated found shelter with family
or friends, Nenshi said. Schools and courts were closed Friday.
Transit service in the city's core was shut down.
Dale McMaster, executive vice president of ENMAX, Calgary's power
company, said Saturday that at least 30,000 customers remain without
power.
Calgary's mayor said the downtown area remained off limits and
employers will have to make arrangements to have staff work remotely
until at least the middle of the week.
"It is extremely unlikely that people will be able to return to those
buildings before the middle of next week," Nenshi said.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a Calgary resident, said he never
imagined there would be a flood of this magnitude in this part of
Canada.
The Conservative Party said Saturday that it has postponed its federal
policy convention which was scheduled to begin Thursday at the Telus
Convention Centre in downtown Calgary because of the floods.
"There are neighborhoods under water, so there is a lot of work we
have to do to rebuild," said Michelle Rempel, a member of Parliament
for Calgary Center. "Postponing the convention is the right thing to
do for the people of Calgary."
Calgary, a city of more than a million people that hosted the 1988
Winter Olympics, is the center of Canada's oil industry.
About 350,000 people work in downtown Calgary on a typical day.
However, officials said very few people had to be moved out, since
many heeded warnings and did not go to work Friday.
A spokesman for Canada's defense minister said 1,300 soldiers from a
base in Edmonton were being deployed to the flood zone.
The Mounties added that approximately 200 additional Royal Canadian
Mounted Police personnel were deployed Saturday from other parts of
Alberta to assist with evacuation, rescue, traffic safety and security
operations,
Calgary was not alone in its weather-related woes.
Efforts were under way Saturday to move more than 2,000 people from
their homes in a flood-prone part of northeastern Saskatchewan because
of rising water levels.
___
Associated Press writers Rob Gillies and Charmaine Noronha in Toronto
and Jeremy Hainsworth in Vancouver, British Columbia, contributed to
this report.
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