Former High River Mayor reflects on historic flood of 2013
Posted Jun 16, 2014 8:04 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Emile Blokland admits “they were caught with their pants down” when his town became involved in what has become the costliest natural disaster in Canadian history.
Blokland said he will never forget the events that played out on June 20th, 2013.
The day began with a phone call saying the Emergency Management Operations centre was opening up; two hours later a State of Emergency was declared and not long after, the evacuation of the town’s 13,000 residents was ordered.
The EMO, located in downtown High River, had to be re-located.
Blokland said the flood was anything but typical for the area, which has dealt with many high water events along the Highwood River over the decades.
Helicopters were used to rescue dozens of people who took refuge on their rooftops, hundreds of soldiers and dozens of RCMP officers were brought in to secure the area, preventing people from returning to their homes to survey the damage and retrieve belongings.
Blokland said in hindsight it’s too bad more flood mitigation work wasn’t carried out following previous floods, but he believes major improvements have since been undertaken.
Much of High River has bounced back from the flood last year, but some areas, like the community of Wallaceville, still stands despite the announcement it will be razed.
Many residents continue to battle with the Alberta Government looking for compensation from the Disaster Recovery Program.
Of the four deaths blamed on the flood, which left behind more than $5-billion in damage across Southern Alberta, three of them were along the HIghwood River.
A special ceremony is planned in High River on Friday, June 20th at 11 a.m. to commemorate the flood, which will be followed by a barbecue.
