High River flood relief

To give our High River Times group of newspapers a chance to get back on their feet after the devastation caused by recent flooding, the AWNA will waive all fees on their commissioned advertising sales until the end of September.

Our own Julie Anne McRae headed down to High River last week to help in the relief effort. She reports that it was hard work and there is still much more to be done.

Visit http://www.redcross.ca/ to donate to Alberta Flood relief or follow #missionpossible2 or @TownOfHighRiver on Twitter to stay up to date on what these communities need as they rebuild.

JA hopping in here, and sharing a few photos.

Fortunately, working with the AWNA staff, they have allowed me great flexibilty in schedule, so when High River put out the call for general volunteers, I was able to stop, head south and help with the clean up.

I was assigned to a adult apartment complex, mostly seniors. Their basements had filled with flood water anywhere from four to eight feet, everything had to be hauled out, including pulling down the drywall. So sad to see things like photo albums and keepsakes ruined and trashed.

Otto, one of the apartment residents joked with us “he was thinking about adopting a minimalist lifestyle anyway, and the flood was giving him a head start”. But others went through their belongings as we carried them out, piece by piece, looking for things they could salvage.

What a nice bunch of people you can meet even at a time like this. From the other volunteers to the apartments residents, to the townspeople that visited the work sites bringing treats like popsicles, cookies, chili or dry workgloves.

Posted by Dennis