High Riverites need more action, not sensitivity

A recent column in the Calgary Sun suggested that Premier Alison Redford's announcement of policy on disaster relief funding for future floods was poorly timed, and not sensitive to the needs of High Riverites.  "The premier truly is politically tone deaf," charges the Editorial.

Pot, meet kettle.

Imagine a scenario when you have been unable to enter your flood-ravaged home for 3 weeks, and when you finally do, nothing in your house is salvageable because of the high quantities of mould.  You start cleaning up, and very shortly are asking "what for?"  This is what thousands of High Riverites are doing as I type this.

Now imagine this scenario with no announcements from the province or municipal governments explaining what's next.  Some people move away, because they can't handle the recovery.  If they don't get disaster relief funding, they declare bankrupcy and hope for the best in the future.  Others stay, use whatever funding they can get to return the house to liveable state, but will never be able to sell it because no government is saying whether or not they will be covered for future events.  Then, 3 years later, after another political election, the government is in the "safe" zone and can make the controversially timed announcement that they will not get covered if they didn't move.

If that were to actually happen (which thankfully it won't), I would join the riots.

High Riverites are stronger people than the Calgary Sun gives us credit for.  We don't need our Premier to stroke our hair and say "there there, there there." We need our Premier to say "don't build there again, and here's some relief funding to help you make that decision."

Good political decisions are those that are made in the best interests of all Albertans, regardless of the sensitivity of the timing.

Now this policy is a good one for all Albertans, not just High Riverites.  Not making the announcement would have been far less sensitive to our needs.

That being said, the announcement is devoid of detail.  We could look at the current Alberta Environment Flood Mapping application, but it is now badly out of date.  Compare the two pictures below.

The first is Alberta Environment's Flood Mapping app.  The second is a map of the affected areas in the Town of High River's re-entry plan.  Notice how Alberta Environment said there was no risk of floods in the yellow, and yet that is where all the standing water is?

People who were in those yellow areas, yet still flooded out anyway, don't even know if they are in a flood plain or flood fringe zone.  There was never any indication that they were in danger, so that's why they built there.  Now what?

All levels of government need to double ... no, quintuple their efforts to get those flood mapping applications updated with current data, so those people who never expected flooding was a possibility will know whether or not that is still the case.

Then, when it comes to mitigation, we must make decisions that make sense.

The Province says "don't build in a flood plain".  Assuming we know where that flood plain is, I'm sure every High Riverite will say "thanks, I hadn't figured that out yet."

But then the Province says "if you are in the flood fringe, fortify against floods."  Then I see what Alberta Environment's idea of fortification looks like.

You don't need to be an engineer to see the problem here.  If every municipality allowed the building of many flood proofed areas, floodway and flood fringe levels would rise, the flood hazard areas would change, and we'd be back to square one.

Simply flood proofing is obviously not the best course of action if it is the only course of action.  There must be more.  Building berms or dykes aren't the best options either for the same reason.  The reason water levels rise is because they have nowhere else to go.  You build a berm to prevent the water from flowing, it goes somewhere else.  You build a dyke to divert the water, once it arrives at its destination, it still needs somewhere to go.

I'm no expert at this.  But this much I can figure out for myself.  There are experts elsewhere in the world that can help us out with this.  Ask those who manage the mighty Mississippi.  Ask those in the Netherlands who deal with floods regularly.  Those along the Nile use floods to their advantage.  Somebody out there can help us figure out how to manage our ever-changing climate, and the likelihood that this flood can happen again.

I'm glad for the announcement of flood relief policies.  It tells us what to expect, and now we can plan for it.  While the PCs missed a lot prior to the flood (namely sitting on a flood mitigation report), they at least got that part right.  Now the real test is if they'll follow up on that policy and give us the details.

We need those details now.  We need to demand it.  If we have to wait six years for them, we won't be asking the PCs for it, because they won't have been elected again.  We need that action, and we need it now.

And we need the patronization of High Riverites to stop.  We don't need sensitivity.  We need action.