Hidden Valley submerged by flood

Times Contributor 

 

Although major news chains focused on urban areas, anything along established riverbed areas were hit by flooding this past weekend, with evacuations beginning in Calgary on June 20.

Hidden Valley Golf Resort (HVGR) manager Dick Burgess said he started evacuations on Friday, June 21. HVGR is no stranger to floods and Burgess said they have an established emergency reaction plan for the Resort. He said no one came from the County or the Reserve to coordinate efforts with him, but people were directed to the Siksika and Gleichen emergency shelters if they needed accommodation.

“You can plan all you want but when it hits you really are working by the seat of your pants,” said Burgess, who successfully evacuated the resort with no casualties of any kind.

Burgess said part of his role is to monitor the weather conditions and consult with Environment Alberta. Seeing the imminent flood risk, he called a residents meeting June 19 and prepared residents for the emergency evacuation horn, indicating they should get out. 

There are 300 cabins, with a possibility of 1,200 people needing assistance. Burgess said they checked the gate registry and went door to door to ensure everyone was out. 

“The water is up to the rooftops. You can see some of the second story buildings,” said Burgess. “This really is my only residence for most of the year and there are about 30 others in the same predicament.”

He said it was definitely worse than the 2005 flooding, with water levels about 10 feet deep in the resort.. Alberta Environment indicated that the water had crested, pending no more rain and water released from dams and spillways. The resort built a berm  and regularly employs sandbags to keep the water out, however these measures did not stem the force of the water coming in. Burgess said Alberta Environment staff said the height gauges that monitor the river were all knocked out in the flooding. However, they could measure its speed. Normally, water flow for the river is less than 1500 cubic meters per second and Alberta Environment said the speed of the river flow has increased to 5300 cubic meters per second. Instead of acting as a dyke, the berm is now creating a water dam.

“It’s created a kind of fish bowl that we will have to pump out, when this all subsides,” said Burgess.

All of the cabin area is submerged and as of Sunday, water was entering the club house with areas of the golf course submerged or turned into water courses. .Parts of Highway 842 and several entrances to the resort are blocked. The Arrowwood and Carseland bridges were washed out and it is expected it will be a couple months before they are repaired.

Burgess is asking people to monitor the website www.hvgr.ca, where he is posting updates everyday by 1:00 pm. He said it will reduce the number of calls that he is receiving. He said it will be at least a week before anyone can enter the resort and maybe longer, depending on wheather there is more rain and there are complications in restoration and recovery efforts. The power and water has been shut off and Burgess said there may be sewage backup, but he won’t know until they can safely do some site evaluations. The cabins’ tenancy contracts expire at the end of this year, with no possibility of renewal. There is speculation that some in Hidden Valley will not attempt to restore damage from the flood. Overland flooding insurance is not available anywhere in Canada, so it is expected there will be some disaster relief funds available from provincial and federal sources. Traditionally, the hardest hit areas receive relief first.