Sorry I haven’t been around that much in the past two weeks. Heavy training volumes and busy times at work have left little time or energy for writing.
I was really looking forward to my final big weekend of training leading up to Great White North this past weekend. I had plans to meet friends for a little 120 km ride from Canmore to the Bow Valley Parkway on Saturday, then on Sunday I was going to run the first ever Banff Half Marathon on Sunday. Unfortunately Mother Nature had other ideas.
On Thursday morning I started to hear about flooding happening in Canmore as Cougar Creek turned in to a raging, destructive river. We had no clue how devastating it would be:
Then we started to get word that Bragg Creek, one of our other favourite cycling spots, was flooding and being evacuated. We have some friends that live there who luckily made it out safe and sound.
As work wound down on Thursday parts of Calgary began to be evacuated as the Elbow River started to flood. We were glued to the news and to twitter on Thursday night as the Bow River started to flood and more parts of Calgary were evacuated. We are lucky and live in a high area. All of our friends, families and coworkers are safe although a few did have to evacuate. We were told to stay home from work on Friday. As Neil and I were nearly out of food I made my way to the grocery store where I saw people panic buying flats of water.
Otherwise we stayed home where we were safe and dry and watched the news as the rivers continued to flood our city. Images here and here.
Now that flood waters are starting to recede we are getting an idea for just how extensive the damage is around here. Parts of the pathway along the Bow River that I was running on last weekend are now completely gone.
The Sandy Beach Bridge that I have run over many times is completely destroyed.
image via @6foot4Design
I played the Kananaskis Country Golf Course on Wednesday and the course is now completely closed for the season, the waters still too high to even assess the damage.
My heart goes out to everyone in Alberta affected by the floods. Calgary is filled with big hearts and I know the city will come together to help everyone out as we clean up and rebuild.
I figured you guys were dry and safe but it was nice to get confirmation from your mom and dad yesterday that you guys were good. Must be so hard to watch your city get destroyed like that. I can’t even imagine…
This is so sad. There was terrible flooding in my state last year and some people are still homeless. I’m glad you are safe.
So crazy.
Oh my goodness, I had no idea! Good to hear that you are safe and sound though! My goodness, that is awful.
wow! mother nature can be rough sometimes. glad you guys are safe and hope the towns can recover quickly.