Has Asher dogpaddled to safety?

[Asher]

Jesus.

Glad you're okay, Asher.

Has Calgary had this level of flooding before?

No, it's being called a 100-year flood. So if it did happen before, Calgary had a population of 90,000 or less.

How quickly do you expect clean up to take, and how much help are you expecting from Ottawa?

I've no idea in all respects.

The mayor just said he expects downtown to remain closed off until mid next week due to power issues at the earliest.

It's kind of surreal - the flooding is all (obviously) concentrated along the rivers. As there are no rivers near where I work or live, it's pretty much business as usual. But if you try to leave this quadrant of the city, it's like another world right now.

[Asher]

Do you know if important equipment of those office blocks are kept in the basement?

I would hope not, however the building in the last picture is actually a central heating & power unit that powers and heats many buildings in the downtown core. If it's flooded, I'd expect that's why downtown will be screwed for a while.

(Fortunately I work out in the suburbs on a university campus).

[Asher]

What's also pretty amazing is so far only 3 people are suspected to be dead, and all of them were not in Calgary but rural communities to the west that actually got hit even harder:























Most people heeded the mandatory evacuation calls which were in advance of floodwaters in each neighbourhoods. The idiots who didn't evacuate are apparently being rescued from military helicopters.

[Docfeelgood]

[Dinner]

It looks like those fly fishing waders came in handy. I bet that water is pretty toxic too just like it was in New Orleans. You have sewerlines over flowing, gas from gas stations, and not to mention all the various chemicals and what not in people's homes and businesses all added to the mix. At least Alberta isn't subtropical like Louisiana.

[regexcellent]

More importantly, was there any damage to the curved office building?

[Dinner]

Up to 100,000 people forced from their homes. The pictures of homes being pushed off of their foundations by the flood waters are pretty surreal.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/21/world/americas/canada-calgary-floods

[Dinner]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2013/06/21/aerial-view-flooding.html

Video of the flooding from a news helicopter.

[Asher]

More importantly, was there any damage to the curved office building?

Probably.

[Dinner]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23011945

Video of the roof of a house colliding with a bridge.

[Colon™]

More importantly, was there any damage to the curved office building?

That's a nice tower.

[Flubber]

Hi Asher.

I knew your home would be safe from what I could recall of where you lived. Mine is fine too and should never have a problem from flood.

My work experience yesterday was similar to yours as well ... I travelled all the way from the west end down to essentially 22x with light traffic and no issues. Glenmore trail, 14rh street and Macleod trail are all major arteries with no issues when I drove them.

Mrs Flubber worked a night shift at Foothills hospital. Only issue she had was that the Transcanada highway was closed but not flooded at the Shouldice bridge. She showed her hospital pass and they let her cross but they were turning everyone else back

[Asher]

That's a nice tower.

Aye - Norman Foster designed it. It officially opened just a few months ago.

Flubber - glad to hear your family is safe.

[Docfeelgood]

Asher?

Rain or snow melt?

[RedFred]

Great to hear most people seem to be safe.

The pictures from High River were even more dramatic. Have they ever considered changing their name to something less jinxed?