Wet enough for ya?

[Darren Dirt]

We are lucky here in Edmonton, it seems our river valley is so deep compared to the surrounding land that flooding is not that much of a concern (although slippage is, as some river-side homeowners discovered around a decade ago).

Yesterday I saw some news stations' video coverage overhead of Canmore, AND of Calgary. YIKES. Felt kinda surreal, seeing that in a major Canadian city, let alone in Alberta. Reminded me of footage from India or Bangladesh or similar.

And then I logged into my GoA PC this morning, saw this actually frightening dialog popup.

Hope any family and friends of yours in southern Alberta are safe, folks.




...seriously surreal...
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2013/06/21/alberta-flooding-calgary-canmore-high-water.html

http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/06/21/officials-warn-worst-is-yet-to-come-as-areas-of-calgary-begin-to-flood/

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/06/21/calgary_flooding_stay_away_from_downtown_police_tell_residents.html

[Mr. Analog]

You should see Canmore

https://twitter.com/Goldsack/status/347759014119096320/photo/1

[Melbosa]

I have a trip to Fairmont next week Wednesday....

[Mr. Analog]

Bring a canoe!

[Lazybones]

Crazy, only heard about this lat yesterday.

I didn't realize how exposed that area was.

[Tom]

A friend of mine lives in canmore. In a basement suite... Luckily he hasn't flooded. yet.

[Thorin]

Edmonton has low-lying areas that can flood as well.

Interesting before-and-after pictures: http://www.cbc.ca/news/interactives/before-after/alberta-floods/.  The third one is typical Albertan.  Actually, so is the second one.

Here's a video of Cougar Creek, you can see the banks crumbling as the video goes on: http://www.cbc.ca/news/yourcommunity/2013/06/your-photos-of-southern-alberta-floods.html#mid=11686473&offset=18&page=1&s=upload DESC

Where I live, the local river almost floods pretty much every year.  The bicycle paths along the river disappear and some houses along the riverbank get water about three feet from their basement doors for about one to three weeks.  And yet, people keep building by rivers.  Cougar Creek's kind of unusual, though, that streambed looked like it could handle even a large flood, but this is obviously one of those once-every-hundred-years floods.

[Darren Dirt]

Here's a video of Cougar Creek, you can see the banks crumbling as the video goes on: http://www.cbc.ca/news/yourcommunity/2013/06/your-photos-of-southern-alberta-floods.html#mid=11686473&offset=18&page=1&s=upload DESC

On a page above there's a link to a 23-image still frame slideshow, which certainly has some disturbing shots. But WOW when you see any of the full-motion VIDEO of the rushing brown liquid, it seriously looks identical to some of the footage from the Japan tsunami, rapidly moving water with such destructive power, awesomely terrifying.

And then I logged into my GoA PC this morning, saw this actually frightening dialog popup.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/yourcommunity/2013/06/albertans-capture-their-flood-evacuations-with-real-time-photos.html

evac zone:


here's why:

[Mr. Analog]

That video shows a guy walking around and on the bridge saying it was "gonna go"

It went:
http://youtu.be/vBt5MISANm4
http://youtu.be/Pu2dTg9pdHg

[Thorin]

Found this interesting web page: http://www.environment.alberta.ca/forecasting/data/precipmaps/precipmaps.html

Here's a map of the storm event (in PDF format): http://www.environment.alberta.ca/forecasting/data/precipmaps/event.pdf.  Pretty clear where most of the rain happened.

[Darren Dirt]

That video shows a guy walking around and on the bridge saying it was "gonna go"

It went:
http://youtu.be/vBt5MISANm4
http://youtu.be/Pu2dTg9pdHg

those 2 distinct orange + red colored houses seem to be these:
http://goo.gl/maps/U0QBG



@ 11:43am right now there's a live press conference http://calgary.ctvnews.ca/video?playlistId=1.1335319 with updates from the CEMA folks. Apparently every single bridge that comes close to the Elbow or Bow = effectively shut down. Including the major artery Deerfoot Trail @ 17 Ave SE (!) I think. 

And even MacLeod trail as well (which appears to be the main road from the south that feeds out of/into downtown Calgary :eep:

Dozens of million+ dollar homes in the "Elbow Park" area are in serious danger of being wiped out completely if things keep up. The high price their owners paid for a nice view, ouch...

[Mr. Analog]

Wow...

I hope everyone affected by the flooding is ok

[Tom]

Yeah, no kidding.

[Lazybones]

I have cousins in Calgary, some interesting photos coming in on the feed that is for sure..

LRT is flooded out.

Zoo is flooded

Stamped grounds flooded

Highway 1 flooded.

[Darren Dirt]

Zoo is flooded

They safely evacuated all the animals. Apparently the recently-added penguin habitat = totally under water.  And apparently the Stampede grounds might be so badly affected that this year's gonna be cancelled or at least modified in its scope. When in history have you ever heard of the Calgary Stampede not running?