It’s been almost five years since the terrible day that changed Kat Westerman’s life, but the memories are still terrifyingly vivid for her.
“It was pretty awful,” Westerman said. “I’m not going to lie.”
She’s referring to what she experienced on June 20, 2013, when a massive flood suddenly hit her hometown of High River in southern Alberta.
“This huge river of water, going whoosh through the road in front of us,” Westerman recalled. “And we couldn’t even get to the area where our apartment was because there were trees floating down the road.”
Westerman was sharing her story with a group of students at Calgary’s Western Canada High School ahead of a benefit concert the students organized for 7 p.m. on April 11 at the school.
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The students were hoping to raise about $3,000 for the Canadian Mental Health Association.
Westerman offered to perform at the concert because she knows first-hand how important it is to get treatment for mental health issues.
Her experiences during the 2013 flood left her suffering post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
“I couldn’t sleep, it was so bad. I was afraid of literally everything,” Westerman said. “I ended up having a three-day-long panic attack and ended up in the hospital, which is why I went and sought therapy.”
Westerman is trying to support the kind of treatment that’s made such a big difference for people like WCHS Grade 12 student, Kailey Newel, one of the organizers of the benefit concert.
“I was diagnosed with panic disorder,” Newel said. “And I know definitely for some people they don’t have the help that I’ve had. And that scares me because it’s really scary to do it alone.”
Westerman says therapy, along with meditation and her music, is helping her heal.
For years, she’d been too fearful of another flood to go back to High River, but she’s now comfortable again there.
“It’s a beautiful place,” Westerman said. “I was there last week, jamming with all my old jammy friends.”
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