Bragg Creek is alive and well.
Well, maybe not that well, but it’s getting there.
One can only appreciate the flood damage done to that community by seeing it in person.
It is simply awful.
It simply can’t be imagined.
Once thriving businesses shuttered.
One peers into closed shops and sees the skeletons of metal studs as owners rebuild and restart.
This past weekend was Bragg Creek Days and it was so much more than a parade.
It was a new beginning.
One could almost feel the community spirit.
The feeling that yes, we’ve been badly bruised by the flood, but we’re not done, we’ll be back.
We’ll be back and we’ll be better than we ever were.
If ever there was a fine example of a community pulling together in the face of adversity it has to be Bragg Creek.
And others as well.
When the flood hit Bragg Creek some of the first responders on the scene were from Cochrane.
Redwood Meadows first responders were there as well and they’ve continued to help.
They recently held a breakfast and raised more than $2,100 for Bragg Creek flood relief as you can see in the photo on this page.
The folks at Redwood Meadows Emergency Services didn’t have to raise those funds, they did it because they’re good neighbours and who could ask for more than that?
But you can help.
Visit Bragg Creek.
Do a little shopping there. Walk around and let them know you care.
People were flood story
Still with a flood post-mortem.
The provincial government is looking at everything involving the flood and so it should.
It’s not all bad nor all good of course and there are areas that could be improved and I think one is public involvement.
Floods are not a government program to be controlled by bureaucrats.
An example.
When it all started and people were being evacuated a provincial government decree started that even though there might be thousands of evacuees one could not take food to them.
Why?
Because the food would not be government inspected.
That’s inherently wrong.
We are a people who come to the aid of our neighbours in time of crisis and bringing food is a basic belief of we prairie folk.
In Calgary, Mayor Nenshi took control and there were volunteers, utter strangers, going into people’s houses and removing destroyed furniture, all from homes of evacuees.
But in rural Alberta you couldn’t even give them a cookie.
And speaking of evacuees.
Bureaucrats decided media would not be allowed into the evacuee centres and I can understand that but telling media that evacuees couldn’t talk to the media is bureaucracy going too far.
That decision is for the evacuee and not some government official.
And before any level of government takes credit for Cochrane avoiding serious damage let’s get the facts.
We were saved because the river channel is very deep and the banks are high.
So let’s give credit where it’s due.
It’s has nothing to do with any level of government but rather the Big Guy who did it all.
Just to keep it in perspective.
He did it without a development permit, didn’t have one consultant and didn’t even have an area structure plan.
And He did it in seven days.
