Since Thursday afternoon, to say I’ve been distracted is a mild way of putting it. Our poor city and outlying areas were hit with torrential downpours which led to flash flooding, followed by more flooding. Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced from their homes, many coming back to finding everything destroyed…
AND IT’S HEARTBREAKING
Family, Friends & Neighbours of ours have all been affected in some shape or form. We were lucky and even though I’m still waiting for my office to get back to functional, I’m so grateful for the police that are protecting our city from harms way. The relief efforts and attitude of the citizens have been overwhelmingly positive in such a horrible time and I’m so proud to see such courageous and giving attitudes in this place I call home. And I think that’s where the ever resilient Albertan attitude is embodied in the new slogan for the 2013 Calgary Stampede, “Hell or High Water”.
As someone had said, the Stampede hasn’t been cancelled once in 100 years, not even through two world wars and the Great Depression, so we’re not stopping for this one either. And so we’re going for it! Thousands of volunteers are giving their time and money to the clean-up efforts in all the communities to help prop things up on its legs again. It’s going to take time and patience, which most of us tend to forget in today’s world of now, but we’ll get there. And even though some think Stampede shouldn’t proceed with so much devastation and need of all those many citizens trying to get their life back in order, I think it also is the uplifting event we need in a dark time.
I have faith that even when Stampede proceeds in the next 10 days with the MASSIVE amount of horsepower and volunteer hours normally required to pull it off, the spirit of the city won’t cease. People will be rebuilding for months and years and we can’t forget them. Judging by the way we’ve done things so far, I really hope we all remember to mirror this last week’s performance and hold up the backend of the deal. I guess what I’m really trying to say as an Albertan is,
Calgary I’m Proud To Be A Part of You
And come hell or high water, we’re going to dig in and clean this up and get on with things because that’s what Albertan’s do. I know many people are still wondering how they can help out or volunteer their services. Some great links to check out are the following:
The footage I’ve seen from the flooding is truely devastating. My thoughts and prayers are with the whole Calgary community.
I am so glad to see the Calgary Stamede bring life back to the city. What an amazing display of true rodeo GRIT!
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