CALGARY- While a break from winter’s wrath is welcomed by many, people in Exshaw are keeping a nervous eye on the melting snowpack.
Most of the hamlet was destroyed during the June flood, prompting residents to take action in hopes of preventing similar devastation. Construction is now underway on a $400,000 berm, which flood victims say can’t be done soon enough.
“I’m worried about the water, I try not to dwell on it,” says Jen Smith, whose family is currently living in a trailer while their battered home sits deserted across the street. “It’s a terrifying feeling knowing you are at the mercy of those two creeks. I’m very relieved things have started, I was very worried come spring not enough would have been done.”
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The berm will be about two metres high and four metres wide.
“We will be safer in a way we’ve never been before,” explains Reeve Dene Cooper. “This berm did not exist before, it’s designed to the 2013 level of flooding.”
He adds there are about a dozen homes in Exshaw that will have to be torn down, but everything from the shingles to the siding will be recycled.
The berm should take about three weeks to build, and crews are also putting in a large box culvert on Jura Creek and reinforcing a nearby dam.
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