Redwood Meadows Emergency Services

	In a bizarre turn of events, exactly 10 years to the day after a flood event endangered the Bragg Creek area (not to mention High River and other local area communities), days of steady rain brought us into a state of emergency once again. Here, Wild Rose Close in West Bragg Creek is overrun by the creek and pond adjacent.
	This is the other side of Wild Rose Close, which forms a loop around the pond/lake. There is a drain grate in the lake, but it was inadequate for this much volume.
	Not many sunbathers on the beach today!
	Some of the driveways off Boyce Ranch Road in the southeast corner of our district, get washed away under the constant hammering the waterflow is providing.
	All the water flowing down Boyce Ranch Road pooled at the intersection with Highway 22. Under that swirling vortex in the photo is a culvert draining the water to another location.
	And here's where that water is going, underneath Highway 22 and out the other side of the culvert. To get an idea of how forcefully this water is coming out of the culvert, look at the video (below).
	This is a shot of the Elbow River as it crosses under Highway 22, just north of Highway 8 (near Camp Gardiner). The dark island in the right center of the shot is normally on the riverbank!
	Bracken Road at its closest point to the river is, to use the technical term, 'gone'. Luckily, no one was caught when the road was washed away. Notice the height of the pavement in the background compared with the water level.
	This is the middle bridge of three that Bragg Creek utilizes to cross under Township Road 232. That's a fence visible just above the guardrail. Normally, no water should be visible at all in this picture (the creek would be to the right of the frame).
	Because of the high volume of calls received during this period, help was received in the form of a number of apparatus and crews, including #10 Squad from the City of Calgary.
	Those of you who were around in 1995 for the flood at that time, will remember that White Avenue (Highway 758) was devoured by the Elbow. Soon after, Rocky View rebuilt the road and built up the riverbank with heavy rock rubble. (Note the culvert that was washed onto the island in the middle of the river, and the two similar ones in the far left background.)
	Clearly the rock wall did its job. At right, the Trading Post, which was endangered in 1995, is safe and out of danger.
	Click here to see a video of the areas affected by this disaster. (4:39, 640x480, 25mb in size) (To download, right click and choose 'Save As')