Calgary Flood 2013 - Day 2

Calgary Flood 2013 - Day 2: stairs to Memorial Drive, a photo by Wanderfull1 on Flickr.

Yesterday I wandered through Sunnyside and Memorial Drive.  This is Memorial Drive from the north end of Princes Island Park's pedestrian bridge and my favorite photo of the day.  As I wandered I met a few photographers.  One   tried walking across the Memorial Drive mud levee built to keep the river waters back.  The levee wasn't working.  Neither was walking on it.  One of the guy's rubber boots got stuck in the mud and he wiped out.  Later he wanted me to take a photo of him leaping off the meridian into the flood waters, with his large muddy, expensive looking Canon camera.

Some of the things heard:

• People on the bike path please leave the area.  The waters are rising and you are in danger.  You will be stranded.  Move to the west of the Peace Bridge. -- Police helicopter circling the bike path east of the Peace Bridge.
• She got out with just her cat, the litter box, and her cell phone.  Just the necessities. -- A couple of women near the washed out Community Garden talking about their neighbor.
• I had to get my truck to safer ground. -- A man who just splashed his Toyota SUV through two feet of water to park it half a block away.
• The water in my basement was only ankle deep at 6:30 this morning.  Now my basement is thigh high. -- Sunnyside resident packing stuff out of his home.
• I dropped my keys. -- Sunnyside resident who lost her keys in two feet of water on the road in front of her house.
• I wonder how that's going to get under the bridge. Oh! That's how. -- A conversation between a woman and I as we watched a ten foot tree explode against Centre Street Bridge's lower deck.
• The buzz of lots and lots of really big mosquitoes.
• Generators trying to pump water out of Sunnyside.
• Home fire alarms.
• Car alarms.
• Police sirens.
• Firetruck sirens.
• Helicopters.

Signs:

• "X" marked on doors to indicate to neighbors they were safely evacuated.

• "Sunnyside has been evacuated!" - sign on apartment door
• "Hi Neighbors. This glass was left behind after our block party.  It is desperate to find its way home." - a note found beneath a glass one third full with rain water