The Rains Came Down and the Floods Came Up

Where to begin.......

What started out as a couple days of rain

And a little bit of hail

Has turned into some of the most catastrophic flooding our province has ever seen.

Tens of thousands have been evacuated, displaced, and uprooted.  Entire towns have had to leave, not knowing what, if anything, they will come home to.

Many of these people have lived in these towns their entire lives.  The devastation is heartwrenching.  A tenth of the city of Calgary has been evacuated (thats 100,000 people).......the military has been called in to help.  

Living in a fairly safe, secure, and landlocked province, you would think this would never happen to us.  We look like we've been hit by a hurricane.  The reality is, Mother Nature is just an equal opportunity destroyer.  For hours at a time the rains seemed endless, and just when you thought you would get a reprieve, the deluge would start again.

City after city have declared states of emergency.  People are panicked, people are scared.....and through it all people have proven time and again that the human spirit is a remarkable thing.  For every story of fear and devastation, there is a story of love, compassion and people on guard and ready and willing to help their neighbors.  We pull together, we embrace people we've never met and we offer what we can to those who have lost so much..  There is A LOT of cleaning up to do once the water goes down......but people are ready.

                                       

So as you go about your life in the next few days, please take a moment a say a prayer or give a thought for Alberta.  We could really use it.