Tuesday, June 07, 2005
State of Emergency (Welcome to Canada)
I hope the weather is nice at home, because Simon and Sandy definitely brought the rain with them! It started last Friday, when I was on-call, heavy rain drops and black clouds. I had a really quiet night (only 1 admission in 20 hours!) and I put it down to the bad weather keeping the only-slightly-sick-I'll-go-to-the-doctor-tomorrow people indoors. After my catch-up sleep on Saturday morning we spent the day shopping and doing housework before the arrival of The Visitors on Sunday. It was colder than normal and there was some light rain on and off, but the day's weather wasn't too bad. We watched 'The Negotiator' on DVD on Saturday night. Sunday was rainy too, on and off, and when Simon & Sandy & Sebastian arrived it was dull and overcast with a steady drizzle. It let up a little bit on Monday morning (clear skies, maybe it's stopping?), but then it closed in again and the rain increased. The weather forecast said it would keep on raining until Thursday. The Jeep aquaplaned for a second or two on the way home over the Stoney Trail Bridge. There were deep puddles on all the roads. The breakwaters on the Bow River where we had sat and watched the river go by a few days ago were now submerged...
[Interlude: P is off in Boston today, giving a talk for her boss. Except it didn't go exactly to plan... She was up at 04:30 on Monday morning (30 mins after Sebastian woke up), left at 05:10 and was checked in by 06:00. She was flying to Montreal first, then immigrating into the US at Montreal airport, and then going on to Boston, Mass. She was supposed to be in Boston by 6pm Eastern time, which is 4pm here. I tracked her flights on the net, and she arrived in Montreal on time. But then... all flights to the eastern seaboard were cancelled due to a big storm system, and she was stuck in Montreal for the night. They gave her a seat on a flight to Boston at 06:30am, and a phone number for a hotel. But they wouldn't pay for a hotel, as the delay was due to an Act of God. So she spent the night in thirty-degree temperatures with high humidity in a crappy hotel room, trying to watch French TV, having to get up at 03:45 for a taxi at 04:30 so she could get her flight on time. But the good news is that she made today's flight OK, and is now in Boston (she called at 08:30am Eastern time), so she has plenty of time to get there and give her talk which is at 4pm. Now we just have to get her back again...]
Back to rainy Calgary... I was driving home with Simon after buying a car seat at Canadian Tire and we had the radio on. The radio made some odd noises, like a high-pitched beeping noise going on for a few seconds, so we turned it off. When we got home, Sandy and Sebastian were watching kids' TV on Channel 14 and within a few minutes the program was interrupted by the same high-pitched signal and a screen that read: "ALBERTA PUBLIC SAFETY WARNING SYSTEM". A tape-recorded voice read out a message that there was a flood watch in effect in Willow Creek, which is south of here. Wow!
Over the evening and night, the rain has been heavy and steady, and on waking this morning we discovered that the Flood Watch (i.e. watch out in case it floods) has now been upgraded to a Flood Warning (i.e. watch out, it's gonna flood!) in several areas south of the city. Areas affected are the Elbow, Highwood and Sheep Rivers, and the towns affected are Bragg Creek, High River, Claresholm, Okotoks, Black Diamond, Turner Valley and Pincher Creek among others. Most of these areas have declared a local state of emergency, and are giving out sandbags and warning people not to travel unless they have to. A few of the highways have started to close too, like number 22 to Bragg Creek.
The city seems OK at the moment, although a lot of traffic lights are off and the Elbow River in the south-east is about to burst its banks, so the riverside trails have been closed to the public. They're a bit worried about the Bow rising, and also about the level of the Glenmore reservoir, which is slap bang in the middle of the south-east (it's beside the Heritage village). I'm sitting downstairs in the kitchen at present (10:47am) with the radio on, and the same Warning Message has just interrupted the program, with a lot more areas affected. It seems that things are moving fast, with over 100mm rainfall in the last 24 hours, and no let-up expected for 36-48 hours. They're saying that this sort of storm comes along every 20 years or so, and Simon, Sandy and Sebastian have come at just the wrong minute weather-wise. Hopefully it'll all be over by the weekend.
That's all from Weather Station number 48 for now, you may return to your duties...
[Interlude: P is off in Boston today, giving a talk for her boss. Except it didn't go exactly to plan... She was up at 04:30 on Monday morning (30 mins after Sebastian woke up), left at 05:10 and was checked in by 06:00. She was flying to Montreal first, then immigrating into the US at Montreal airport, and then going on to Boston, Mass. She was supposed to be in Boston by 6pm Eastern time, which is 4pm here. I tracked her flights on the net, and she arrived in Montreal on time. But then... all flights to the eastern seaboard were cancelled due to a big storm system, and she was stuck in Montreal for the night. They gave her a seat on a flight to Boston at 06:30am, and a phone number for a hotel. But they wouldn't pay for a hotel, as the delay was due to an Act of God. So she spent the night in thirty-degree temperatures with high humidity in a crappy hotel room, trying to watch French TV, having to get up at 03:45 for a taxi at 04:30 so she could get her flight on time. But the good news is that she made today's flight OK, and is now in Boston (she called at 08:30am Eastern time), so she has plenty of time to get there and give her talk which is at 4pm. Now we just have to get her back again...]
Back to rainy Calgary... I was driving home with Simon after buying a car seat at Canadian Tire and we had the radio on. The radio made some odd noises, like a high-pitched beeping noise going on for a few seconds, so we turned it off. When we got home, Sandy and Sebastian were watching kids' TV on Channel 14 and within a few minutes the program was interrupted by the same high-pitched signal and a screen that read: "ALBERTA PUBLIC SAFETY WARNING SYSTEM". A tape-recorded voice read out a message that there was a flood watch in effect in Willow Creek, which is south of here. Wow!
Over the evening and night, the rain has been heavy and steady, and on waking this morning we discovered that the Flood Watch (i.e. watch out in case it floods) has now been upgraded to a Flood Warning (i.e. watch out, it's gonna flood!) in several areas south of the city. Areas affected are the Elbow, Highwood and Sheep Rivers, and the towns affected are Bragg Creek, High River, Claresholm, Okotoks, Black Diamond, Turner Valley and Pincher Creek among others. Most of these areas have declared a local state of emergency, and are giving out sandbags and warning people not to travel unless they have to. A few of the highways have started to close too, like number 22 to Bragg Creek.
The city seems OK at the moment, although a lot of traffic lights are off and the Elbow River in the south-east is about to burst its banks, so the riverside trails have been closed to the public. They're a bit worried about the Bow rising, and also about the level of the Glenmore reservoir, which is slap bang in the middle of the south-east (it's beside the Heritage village). I'm sitting downstairs in the kitchen at present (10:47am) with the radio on, and the same Warning Message has just interrupted the program, with a lot more areas affected. It seems that things are moving fast, with over 100mm rainfall in the last 24 hours, and no let-up expected for 36-48 hours. They're saying that this sort of storm comes along every 20 years or so, and Simon, Sandy and Sebastian have come at just the wrong minute weather-wise. Hopefully it'll all be over by the weekend.
That's all from Weather Station number 48 for now, you may return to your duties...
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