It’s business as usual for MLA Joe Anglin but he and his staff were evacuated from his Sundre office June 20 as the raging Red Deer River breached its banks, causing minor flooding in town streets.
“My office, which is right next to the river, was just about an island,” he said. “I sent my staff home with computers. That’s all we could do.”
Anglin, the Wildrose MLA for Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre was in Sundre last week surveying the flood damage.
“There is significant road damage. We need to take a look at the damage and what needs to be done regarding the roads and bridges in the county.”
Anglin said the town evacuated almost its entire east side and a low-lying RV park on the west side on the afternoon of June 20. Later the evacuation order was expanded to include areas up to 500 metres farther inland on the west side. The evacuation sent about half of the town’s 2,700 residents from their homes. The Olds College was set up as a reception area for evacuees.
The evacuation order was lifted the next day for most residents with the exception of the Greenwood RV Village.
Anglin was impressed with the volunteer help that poured in when the threat of flooding occurred.
“Sundre is no stranger to tragedy,” he said. “It’s amazing the number of people that showed up to fill sandbags. It was very impressive how it brought the entire community together.”
In 2005, flooding damaged more than 300 homes in Sundre, in Mountainview County, 130 kilometres northwest of Calgary.
Anglin said Wildrose party officials want to do what they can to help flood victims in Calgary, High River and at the Siksika Nation, a First Nations reserve southeast of Calgary.