Calgary under siege

One hundred thousand residents have been evacuated from 25 low-lying residential areas of this city.  If you live in the south anywhere near the Bow or Elbow Rivers, you're outta there.  It's eery.

Police cars and fire trucks are everywhere.  Many neighbouring towns have been completely evacuated -- Canmore, Bragg Creek, parts of Okotoks, to name a few.  People are stranded on roofs everywhere.  Near Banff, both the TransCanada # 1 and # 1-A are flooded and closed completely. 

Luckily, we live in the northwest up Nose Hill, about 23 klicks from both rivers and are fine -- so far.  But the rain has not let up, so no one is out of the woods.  We have had more than 150 millimetres in the past 36 hours and there's more to come.  Travelling on a bridge over the Bow this afternoon, I was shocked at how high it was -- barely below the pavement.  The parks on both shores were completely flooded. 

What's next?  But I have to commend the City Fathers for their excellent handling of this emergency.  Bulletins are regular and the radio stations interrupt constantly with news of the latest evacuation orders.  The mayor is returning early from a conference and the premier has come back from New York and will fly to a stranded community at 11 p.m.

No one has been killed or injured, thanks to the competence of emergency personnel -- people such as my son-in-law.  But in petty moments, I still worry about ridiculous things, like my bloody flowers.

Talk about shallow.