HIGH RIVER, ALTA. — Only a week ago the town of High River’s main hotel, grocery store and franchise restaurants were dark, dusty and patrolled only by military vehicles and police. On Wednesday, the Tim Hortons and McDonald’s just off the highway were bustling with mud-slick citizens trading war stories of the flood.
Homes in areas where the water has receded are now open; the pass system, which restricted access to residents and contractors, has been lifted.
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Business is coming back in this tense town of 13,000, bit by bit.
But the recovery is slow. In the lower regions in the city’s historic downtown, the picture was not rosy; most of the roads and parking lots were covered in a sheet of cracked mud baking in the summer heat. Store windows were shattered, covered only by plastic red tape warning of danger. The sidewalks are heaped with man-high piles of muck-soaked wood and merchandise.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntoshResidents clean up in High River, Alta., Wednesday, July 3, 2013, after record flooding forced the evacuation of the entire town more than a week ago
On higher ground, Yvonne Montford, one of the owners of Highwood Lock and Key Ltd., spent Tuesday and Wednesday clearing out mud, key cutters and thousands of blank keys into a 24-foot trailer.
“We’re getting everything out of here so we can rebuild the inside,” she said. They lost all their computers and still-unknown valuables stocked up from over 24 years of collecting.
“We’re just trying to get organized here because this is our only living,” Ms. Montford said.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntoshA worker walks past pipes connecting several large pumps as they drain a large area of flood water in High River, Alta., Wednesday, July 3, 2013. The pumps are pumping 84,000 gallons of water a minute.
Her husband, a locksmith, was one of the few civilians who were let back into the town — most of High River’s residents have been blocked out of their homes by police cordons as, officials said, the town had become a disaster zone, too dangerous to be passable.
The quarantine raised tensions in the town; some confronted police at the check points off the highway. The situation was only exacerbated last week when police said they had seized hundreds of unsecured guns found while they were searching homes, a move that prompted the rebuke of even the Prime Minister. Police said the property would be returned to owners this week.
Ms. Montford’s husband picked house locks so the RCMP could conduct searches for survivors and pets in flood-afflicted homes.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntoshReiley McKerracher, manager of engineering for the Town of High River, walks near the outflow of several large pumps as they drain a large area of flood water in High River, Alta., Wednesday, July 3, 2013. The pumps are pumping 84,000 gallons of water a minute.
Business should soon be busy; not every home received the kid-glove treatment. Authorities kicked down the doors of some homes, she said.
Still, her family is suffering as much as many; in the Montfords’ flooded garage sits $250,000 worth of vintage cars, including a 1925 Chrysler coupe, a 1962 Impala convertible and a 1938 Nash Lafayette coupe.
Ms. Montford’s husband is president of the River City Classics Car Club, which claims to hold the biggest and best vintage car show every September.
The couple was insured, Ms. Montford said: “They’ll give us the minimal amount for it.”
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntoshYahya Abougoush helps clean up his parents' house in High River, Alta., Wednesday, July 3, 2013.
Although the government said 6,000 residents of the town have been allowed back to their homes, large sections are still sealed off. Almost two weeks after the river rose, some low-lying regions are still underwater.
The municipal government has brought in massive pumps normally reserved for industrial work in the oilsands region far to the north. Using 18-inch pipes, workers are clearing vast lakes at a rate it would take to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool every 10 minutes. It will still take days, if not weeks.
“The problem with the pumps is you don’t just come in and roll out the pipe,” said High River’s manager of engineering and operations, Reiley McKerracher. “They’re quite a process to rig up and get pumping. The pumps are high pressure, most of the line is plastic and welded in place, there are no garden hoses here.”
Lorraine Hjalte, Calgary HeraldA boat sits on the railway tracks where it ended up after the flood that hit High River almost two weeks ago. Cleanup is well underway in the town of High River on July 2, 2013 and now the community is letting volunteers come in and help with the work load.
In one section normally reserved for a small storm pond, the water had receded by about a metre and a half since pumping began. Mr. McKerracher said he hoped to see the suburb opposite the newly formed lake opened to inspectors by Thursday. It smelled of stagnant water and dead fish.
Just north of that site, the flooding was far worse, deep enough to leave only the tip of a green roof visible over a wide, muddy pool.
“I’ve been talking to people non-stop [since the flood,]” said High River’s mayor, Emile Blokland. “Inch by inch, house by house, business by business, this community is getting back on its feet.”
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THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntoshVolunteer Chris Rogiani, left, hoses the mud off another volunteer outside a restaurant they are cleaning up in High River, Alta., Wednesday, July 3, 2013.