The 5 Minute Project: Okotoks Flood 2013

I have been doing what I call 'The 5 Minute Project' for a little while now. It is always on my personal blog(Pughville.com) and usually about my kids. Well, today, I decided to show my images from my two little 5 minute walks about the community here on my Short and Sweet Blog. The water is way down...last night, I estimate it was down at least a meter from the worst and this morning it is thankfully down even further. These are some familiar sights in Okotoks--Riverside Park, the bike path, the old train bridge. Hard to tell actually. It was good to get out and talk to the neighbours. Hearing the stories of the evacuees from High River has really hit me hard. These images show the physical destruction, but they don't even begin to get at the heart of it. As the shock of it all is starting to wear off, I imagine the heart of it will become more and more apparent. I'm not sure yet how to get in there to photograph it, but I sure would like to...I guess we'll see.

Still in a State of Emergency...still so much of the area under water. We are lucky our house is in the high part of Okotoks. But, we feel a strong urge to help the people we met on the street last night. The people whose hastily packed trucks told the story of how quick this all happened. The grandmother telling us how her new granddaughter was born just Sunday at the High River Hospital. The story of the little girl who lost her backyard which was newly completed. Small things like that...they hit you hard.

Donate to the Red Cross to help http://www.redcross.ca/