Very thankfully, we live in a neighbourhood that was pretty much unaffected by it. So I knew things were bad for a lot of homes, you hear it on the news, see pictures on Facebook etc. But I have been driving around town over the last few days and driveways have emergency flood response vehicles in them...some of them with licence plates from other provinces and some of them with area codes from cities easily 20 hours drive away.
There on their front lawns or by the curb are people's lives. Everything. But at the same time, not only are you left wondering the cost (a lot of them don't have or couldn't get, flood insurance) but is the house safe to go back into? There are houses that are not. They have been condemned because the foundation is caving in from the amount of water.
My heart breaks for these families. And it is one of those situations where I am left feeling helpless. Yes there are ways to help, but at the same time it could take years for some of these families to recover, for houses to be fixed. The community has responded in a BIG way though and it is great to see. The Red Cross and Samaritan's Purse are also here now. Working to get help to those who were flooded out.
There is normally about 20+ feet of clearance between the bottom of the bridge and the top of the water.
This land is well back from the water's edge.
Roads gave out. There are still sections of highway closed because they are working on getting it fixed.
The last two weeks have been relatively rain free. It has given the city a chance to get things under semi-control (the pumping station is still with out 3 of their 5 pumps). It is raining again today.
The irony of it is that there are places in the province, who at the same time Thunder Bay was declaring a state of emergency due to flooding, they were begging for rain to put out the forest fires that have been ravaging their cities. Praying for their droughts to end.
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