Short Musings: June 2013

We are still in a state of Emergency. Although the water ban has been lifted. For a week we couldn't flush a toilet or use a dishwasher or a washing machine or even a watering can. Just in the nick of time the ban was lifted and my plants got a drink.
The sewage treatment plant was overflowing in the Bow River...so if you live on the Mississippi don't go out on the water in a couple of weeks, sorry!
We have been busy cleaning what little Ashley was able to save. Mostly mugs...they seem to be indestructible. Until you get them into your cupboard and you whack the handles off by accident; But in a flood? Wow they can really take it. She saved a very fancy blown glass fish, it had big elaborate fins and tail. Cant think how it survived bobbing around in her apartment, dodging microwaves (not all hers)and chairs and appliances.
I spent several hours trying to restore a painting that she particularly liked and I think it will come through OK.
All in all there isn't much left. A few bits and bobs of her life. No pictures of her trip to Ireland, or her childhood favorites. Her science degree and her own paintings just melted off the walls.
Teams of folks turned up to help. Erin and about 20 of her friends came down and hauled and dragged and worked in the stinking heavy microbe infected muck. Together with Ashley, they cleared out her home and then the neighbour's homes, they worked their way up and down the block and then the other side. They did homes on 24th Ave and on 23rd Ave. They didn't stop until they were beyond exhausted.
They took their own water and food and stopped only for very short breaks. Teams of other volunteers showed up and pitched in. Of course there were gawkers, people who went for walks in the neigbourhoods most affected just to get a good eye full. They used the porta potties and took the free water and without pitching in. It was very difficult to get into the neighbourhoods under siege because the water hadn't gone down and the roads were blocked off. You could walk or bike down, but two of the bridges were washed out so the only source of help had to come from the west and from people who lived in the unaffected western edge of the destruction. Soon the corporations arrived with their teams of t shirted helpers and their buckets and shovels and boots and the beer co's arrived with the free cold beer and the food came in, hot dogs, hamburgers and snacks to keep the workers going. Busses full of police came from Edmonton and elsewhere and the Armed Services arrived. They stood guard against bad behavior while everyone pitched in. All through this there was no theft, looting, shooting, starving, and bad behavior. We are so Canadian. We do pull together so well.
Two older women died in the Flood in Mission. They chose to stay in their subterranean suites and both drowned. One stayed to save her elderly cat.
The salvage is over now. The only things left to do are the assessments of damage and the reconstruction. The buildings and homes have had the teams of government sanctioned flood remediation people in to remove the drywall, the boilers, the wiring, plumbing, the studs and stairwells and now 7200 assessors flown in from all over the country are going from building to building. The occupants will get their homes back. Who knows when. We have our CEMA.
Ashley is still in shock. I can see it in her face and her behavior. She is not a person who is attached to stuff. No artist is. Artists are people who do what they do and own the process of creation and for a
mere moment own the finished product. Then they let go and they are on to the next. Which is a good thing. If you own a piece of her work, you are lucky.
Most services are available finally, by phone to cancel or postpone their contracts with the flood 'victims'. Except of course the mortgage companies. They have not yet answered their phones. That says a lot. the very least, the very, very, least they could have done is put out a notice to their mortgagees, but that they have not done. And to tell the truth I didn't expect it. TD bank did, but as one mortgagee said it was less compassion than it was promotion.
Today a ladies boutique dress shop is giving away their last season and sale items to the Flood Victims, Ashley went to that. When she was evacuated she had arrived at our house with the clothes she stood up in.