Vincentian views Calgary floods
Lynn L’Heureux writes…
There are so many stories and such loss. My husband and I were moved to tears at each story. It is tough when you lose your mementos. One aboriginal on the reserve who was evacuated brought his drum to the temporary shelter and he said it was his comfort. The rest of his things are gone as his house floated away. He says his drum is his heart, passed down from his great ancestors. So many people have offered prayers and God is good.
I am in Ottawa now. I think the money is not a problem, but setting up the strategy will be. wrote this on day three of our devastating flooding in Central and Southern Alberta. The damage is so great and will take a long time to fix. The storm knocked out the railway tracks and stopped the flow of traffic on our Trans Canada Highway. Imagine closing down the entire business area of this city and almost crippling the oil industry. We will survive, but please pray for us to have the strength to lift the thousands of people who are left with little or nothing.
The River’s Flow is Not at Peace
Society of Saint Vincent de Paul Canada Helps Survivors.
Central and Southern Alberta Floods
Canmore Alberta is a beautiful town in the Rocky Mountains, just before Banff Alberta. One of our Adult youth leaders lives there. On Thursday we were meeting with the youth in Calgary to celebrate each other. The storm came over the past week, but the rivers and mountains could take no more and gave way to flood Canmore. We could neither get in or out of Canmore. Plans began to change.
Canmore, a very unselfish town shared their water flow with others east of them and finally with Calgary. Roads are washed out, people are homeless and we are stuck where we are.
I was leaving to go to the next province of BC and had to put plans on hold as all roads west were closed at one point or another. The Trans Canada Highway closed down so no traffic was going through the mountains.
Lives changed and on Thursday, instead of heading to our summer home on the lake, we became surrounded by lake. Not the good lakes. We began gathering food and joined many on Friday at the Church to make thousands of sandwiches to feed some of the more than 100,000 evacuated by a rain storm and overflowing water and mountain melt that would not quit.
Calgary, the largest city in Alberta has two rivers running through it. There were 75,000 displaced people in Calgary and the entire town of High River, near Calgary. High River reports three drownings and another missing person in the early reports. No one except military and rescue workers are allowed to enter the town. All prayers are free to enter.
Hundreds of people came forward to see how they could help. This makes you think again about people. One always says that you count on the community to come together. We often see that in disasters in the US. Canada does not get many disasters and many Canadians help in other countries to ease the pain and suffering. Now over these last three days and into the coming days they will help their neighbours and friends. There is good in every person, you have to look for it and celebrate it.
The SSVP in Canada has a National Emergency Fund as well as an International Emergency Fund. The head of the fund immediately promised financial help. This gives hope to people who have lost everything. It is not just about the money. The prayers that have been pouring in are phenomenal. The offers of help to physically serve the needs of others is God at work. Homes are opened and people are giving of their most precious gift –TIME.
The city of Calgary will take time to renew. The downtown business section is covered in water. There is no power or gas going to many, if not all of the buildings. Even though they suffer many losses, these businesses are offering financial help. This is truly God at work. He never sleeps.
On a personal note, my youngest son owns a few businesses in the downtown core. His power was off and he tried to get a truck to deliver the food to the church to cook for the people. He could not do this. He obviously was frustrated facing closure of his business for days, but continued to think of others. A truck came to his rescue after an hour. He had his food on and under refrigeration.
His 6 year old son, my grandson asked why daddy was worried and asked his dad how things were going. He said it is pretty bad. An adult view of the situation, his business is closed and losing money. The child’s view is, “But daddy I prayed all day, how can things be bad.” My son soon decided things were not that bad.
On the other hand our middle son looks after computer security for major accounts around the world. His thoughts turned to his clients and he feels helpless as his office building is closed and not accessible so as to protect his clients. He cannot even work from home. Although many of us are not in harm’s way, we are all in some way greatly affected from this disaster.
We spent a beautiful evening in our backyard on high ground with the sun shining and the fire roaring, eating oysters ( which were going to spoil) and popcorn (of course with the ever present mosquitoes) . Enjoying the beauty of the good things and knowing God was not going to abandon us.
We know it requires much work and money to rebuild, but we can do it. As Calgary Mayor Nenshi stated we are Calgarians and we will survive. For more information and photos please go to www.ctvcalgary.ca . Don’t believe everything you see on the internet or face book. Try to use legitimate sources for accuracy.
The River’s Flow is Not at Peace
Society of Saint Vincent de Paul Canada Helps Survivors.
Central and Southern Alberta Floods
Canmore Alberta is a beautiful town in the Rocky Mountains, just before Banff Alberta. One of our Adult youth leaders lives there. On Thursday we were meeting with the youth in Calgary to celebrate each other. The storm came over the past week, but the rivers and mountains could take no more and gave way to flood Canmore. We could neither get in or out of Canmore. Plans began to change.
Canmore, a very unselfish town shared their water flow with others east of them and finally with Calgary. Roads are washed out, people are homeless and we are stuck where we are.
I was leaving to go to the next province of BC and had to put plans on hold as all roads west were closed at one point or another. The Trans Canada Highway closed down so no traffic was going through the mountains.
Lives changed and on Thursday, instead of heading to our summer home on the lake, we became surrounded by lake. Not the good lakes. We began gathering food and joined many on Friday at the Church to make thousands of sandwiches to feed some of the more than 100,000 evacuated by a rain storm and overflowing water and mountain melt that would not quit.
Calgary, the largest city in Alberta has two rivers running through it. There were 75,000 displaced people in Calgary and the entire town of High River, near Calgary. High River reports three drownings and another missing person in the early reports. No one except military and rescue workers are allowed to enter the town. All prayers are free to enter.
Hundreds of people came forward to see how they could help. This makes you think again about people. One always says that you count on the community to come together. We often see that in disasters in the US. Canada does not get many disasters and many Canadians help in other countries to ease the pain and suffering. Now over these last three days and into the coming days they will help their neighbours and friends. There is good in every person, you have to look for it and celebrate it.
The SSVP in Canada has a National Emergency Fund as well as an International Emergency Fund. The head of the fund immediately promised financial help. This gives hope to people who have lost everything. It is not just about the money. The prayers that have been pouring in are phenomenal. The offers of help to physically serve the needs of others is God at work. Homes are opened and people are giving of their most precious gift –TIME.
The city of Calgary will take time to renew. The downtown business section is covered in water. There is no power or gas going to many, if not all of the buildings. Even though they suffer many losses, these businesses are offering financial help. This is truly God at work. He never sleeps.
On a personal note, my youngest son owns a few businesses in the downtown core. His power was off and he tried to get a truck to deliver the food to the church to cook for the people. He could not do this. He obviously was frustrated facing closure of his business for days, but continued to think of others. A truck came to his rescue after an hour. He had his food on and under refrigeration.
His 6 year old son, my grandson asked why daddy was worried and asked his dad how things were going. He said it is pretty bad. An adult view of the situation, his business is closed and losing money. The child’s view is, “But daddy I prayed all day, how can things be bad.” My son soon decided things were not that bad.
On the other hand our middle son looks after computer security for major accounts around the world. His thoughts turned to his clients and he feels helpless as his office building is closed and not accessible so as to protect his clients. He cannot even work from home. Although many of us are not in harm’s way, we are all in some way greatly affected from this disaster.
We spent a beautiful evening in our backyard on high ground with the sun shining and the fire roaring, eating oysters ( which were going to spoil) and popcorn (of course with the ever present mosquitoes) . Enjoying the beauty of the good things and knowing God was not going to abandon us.
We know it requires much work and money to rebuild, but we can do it. As Calgary Mayor Nenshi stated we are Calgarians and we will survive. For more information and photos please go to www.ctvcalgary.ca . Don’t believe everything you see on the internet or face book. Try to use legitimate sources for accuracy.
Tags: Calgary, Disasters, L'Heureux, Society of St. Vincent de Paul, SVDP, Vincentian