Rain, Rain, go away………….

I live in Fort McMurray, Alberta where nature likes to keep us on our toes.

If it’s too hot and dry- we end up with forest fires started by both man or nature (lightening storms) springing up around the province . Our Alberta Boreal Forest is huge & fuels the flames well.
Forest fires are a yearly occurrence, they might not burn close to home but the smoke can blow in from elsewhere in the province… or as has happened in the past-a neighbouring one.

This one was close to work (an hour bus ride from home)and smoked us out for about a week or so. It was very smoky in the office buildings, but to be someone that had to work outside would have been unbearable:

Forest fire May 20, 2011

This is how most of our summer looked…..

This year started out with beautiful weather which very recently changed to rain.
Rain, rain, and more rain. It’s been raining for the past week with the forecast showing rain off & on for the next 4-5 days.
Being surrounded by so many waterways (Hangingstone, Clearwater, and the Athabasca rivers…not to mention the Snye & Horse Creek) makes this amount of rain- not a good thing.

Now we have flooding.
We haven’t gotten anything this bad in years and it saddens me to think of the people and buildings affected.

Here are some aerial shots:

Heritage Park:Fort McMurray, AB

(Aerial photo credit to McMurray Aviation)

I was downtown over the weekend & had time before an appointment, so I walked over to Heritage Park to take some photos and browse through the store. I’ve been here more times than I can remember, and to see it like this now….only a few days later-saddens me. The potential for so much history to be lost is very high.

Here it is prior to this disaster:

I hope all of these old historic buildings survive…..especially this one 😦

My Nephew Josh & wife Jill at my Mom’s Memorial service at the church in Heritage Park a few years ago

I knew I should have bought this while I was there the other day….memories…..

I walked across the bridge to Lion’s Park which is now underwater. On this day there were families enjoying the day in the playground:

The day I was there the water seemed higher than normal but I didn’t think it was a threat in the making

I’m hoping the water levels start to go down as I have friends who live in the flood zone. Up until last year, I did as well. People are resilient and will pick up and carry on with the help of others and insurance claims (flood insurance doesn’t really exist unless you have sewer backup or a if it comes up via the storm drain), but the devastation is stressful nonetheless.

Wishing very hard for a happy medium of weather………….not too dry, not too wet……but something that is just right!!!

An update for June 22, 2013:
Fort McMurray is out of the woods and clean up is in progress, but the last few days have been devastating on Southern Alberta. Canmore, Calgary, Bragg Creek, High River; and the Trans Canada Highway suffering severe damage. Here are some videos of what’s happened.