September 19, 2013
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when it rains...
I guess the weird thing about the flood is that we never in a million years dreamed it could happen to us. Even when we were being evacuated we still were in denial. I thought we may end up with a couple of inches in our basement as a result of too much demand on our sewar, water systems. I never could have imagined the actual devastation.
Now, we are learning why.
A cold spring and there was an unusual amount of snow ( ice cap ) still in the mountains. A couple of different storm cells met at the exact right point over these mountains. It poured, it melted the snow, the water was too much for any of the creeks and rivers causing flooding and catastrophic damage all over Southern Alberta.
Our town/area was especially hard hit because we live in what is called a 'prairie basin' meaning our area is lower, like a basin or as it's been nicknamed, the bath tub. So once the water breached the river banks it went down hill back into our town. And there is sat with no where to go until some brilliant engineers brought down huge oilfield pumps and saved the day.
It breached the banks 3 miles from our home. 3 miles is quite a ways.
The water level was between 3-5 feet above ground level all over our town. So depending on how your house or business is set up, that determined the damage. Our main floor is about 5 feet above the ground. You go up front steps to get into our home. For us, we had water in our basement up to about 6 feet.
Not much left to salvage.
The rest of my summer went as follows....
-we thought our cat was dead as she was left in the home. Thankfully, after being rescued by boat we were able to get her. She spent 9 days alone in our home and about 2 weeks in a crate before we got her back. She is very happy to be home and even likes the dog these days.
- I had two aunts die within 10 days of each other mid - late July
- Cahuna was laid off. Thankfully he managed to get another contract and with some major shuffling is back working up north.
- The couple I work for lost their place of business. They never did thank me for going back in and saving their external hard drives and as many items as possible. I saved a lot of things for them and other than the wife acknowledging it once, heard nothing. I didn't want accolades, but I felt my boss should have said something. I quit that job and have been much happier since.
- We had a hail storm come through in mid July that caused so much damage that our two remaining vehicles are going to be spending a week in the shop each AND we need a new roof. Mamma nature took a big poop on us this summer.
-The kids here finally had their graduation and although it wasn't quite what they had planned, it was a much needed day. All the local dignitaries were there to make an appearance... a feel good story.
- Middle kid is now living in Taiwan and attending university over there. She is having a lot of fun.
- Oldest daughter is back at the local university in her 3rd year of nursing. She informed me yesterday that 'babies are gross'...I'm okay with that for a few more years:)
- Cahuna was rushed to the hospital up where he works with stomach pains. They weren't sure what was going on and after 4 days decided it was his pancreas/gall baldder and he probably passed a gall stone. All that for a gall stone?? really?? At one point they mentioned the ' C' word.
One foot in front of the other and we're surviving. We're so much better off than a lot of people and worse off than others.
Emotionally I've struggled. All summer I was taking care and cheerleading my kids and husband and friends. I had no choice. I heard other moms say ' oh, I just needed to get away' or 'I just needed to cry for a couple of days' or ....whatever. That was not an option for me. I had no choice but to hold my shit together. I will have my good cry soon.
It's not so much the 'stuff' we lost that is devastating. It's the overwhelming sense of loss that has been everywhere and the headache that goes along with. For example - we wanted to get out and go for a hike, but 90 % of the local areas we would go hike in are either closed because of the devastation or unaccessable ( roads/bridges washed out). Local parks are gone. I used to walk my dog around the lakes but the bridges were washed away and there was dangerous debris ALL over the grass - broken glass, cement and hazardous looking, neon green algae in puddles. Not safe. We got all excited in mid August when we finally saw kids riding their bikes around our ghost town.
The headache has been replacing things. Furnace, hot water tank, electrical panel - all large waits because of the backlog. Sleeping bags - for some reason I used to have 7. When we were getting ready to send Spud to camp, we realized we now own zero sleeping bags. Winter is coming and in mid June I efficiently moved all our winter bedding and clothing downstairs. I don't have one extra blanket in the house.
We are VERY lucky in that insurance will help us this one time with replacing our contents. The headache is that we have to fill out a spread sheet saying Quantity, Brand, Model, Approx Paid, Age of each item. 23 years of marriage and 3 overly active kids adds up to a lot of stuff. I mean, we're going room by room but the amount of things....knitting needles to furniture. It's a lot of stuff!!
Today I went for lunch with a friend. Tonight I'm going for dinner with a different group of friends and tomorrow I'm going out with another couple of friends. I really needed this. I've MISSED socializing and having fun. I've missed laughing and being happy. But it's coming:) I just feel like we've been in survivor mode.
ON A TOTALLY DIFFERENT NOTE....a guy I knew years ago has been facebook messaging me and friendly during the flood. I know his wife ( beautiful/talented etc) and his family. A couple of times I wondered if it was getting weird but then I decided I was probably just lonely and seeing things that weren't there. So today while I was having lunch with a friend, he sends me a message asking me to text him and he gives me his cell number. I missed it since I was out but then he sent me another message saying he was going to be in our town and wanted to stop by and say hi. I missed him but apparently he went to our home and knocked at our door. I realize I'm kind of paranoid about things like that...but does that seem weird? He lives about 3 hours away and was passing through for work. I'm sure everything was innocent....probably just paranoid. Won't I be fun in my old age if I'm this paranoid now.
Where the heck is spell check on here??? I type too fast PLUS my spelling sucks so I NEED spellcheck?
