It’s been 10 years since the historic floods of southern Alberta that were deadly, expensive and resulted in the first ever declaration of a State of Provincial Emergency in Canadian history.
Over 100,000 people were evacuated from their homes in communities throughout southern Alberta and five people lost their lives. There was more than $5 billion dollars in damages and 55,000 square kilometres of land was directly impacted by the floods; an area nearly 70 times the size of Calgary.
Here’s a timeline of what happened during those historic days of 2013:
- June 8: Weather warnings were issued in northern Alberta.
- June 10: Several kilometres of Highway 63 is flooded.
- June 11: Fort McMurray goes into a state of emergency and evacuation orders are put in place. Soon after, flood waters recede in the area.
- June 19: A storm system brought torrential rains to southern Alberta.
- June 20: 100 mm of rain had fallen and Environment Canada warned precipitation could be double. or even triple, that amount in some areas. That, combined with the melting snowpack in the Rockies, led to dozens of evacuation orders and states of emergency from north of Calgary, south to Lethbridge and west to the mountain parks.
- June 21: Highways — including sections of the TransCanada Highway — were washed out by mudslides. Homes, fields, roads and farmland throughout southern Alberta were drenched. In Calgary, sections of the Calgary Zoo, Scotiabank Saddledome and Stampede Park were all under water. Several bridges were washed away.
- At the height of the emergency, the Bow River’s flow rate was eight times its normal rate, the Elbow River was 12 times its normal rate and the Glenmore Reservoir was strained at seven times its normal outflow.
- June 22: The sun came out, the rivers started to recede and people returned to survey the damage left behind.
Weeks of relentless cleanup brought neighbours and communities together in a way Albertans had never seen before.
It wasn’t until July 4 that Calgary’s State of Local Emergency was lifted.
Everyone who experienced the floods of 2013 remembers what they felt during those days. We caught up with some of the ‘faces of the flood’ as they recount what happened.
Here are their stories:
Craig Snodgrass, High River mayor
Shawn Wiebe, Nanton firefighter
Naheed Nenshi, former Calgary mayor
Tom Sampson, former CEMA director
Neil Zeller, photographer
Shannon Penner, High River resident
Gord Gillies, former Global News anchor
Pauline Higgins, former Global News helicopter traffic reporter
Craig Snodgrass — High River mayor
Craig Snodgrass wasn’t the mayor of High River when the flood hit in 2013. But, after the town was devastated and damaged, he knew he wanted to do more to help rebuild his hometown. So, by October of 2013 he ran for the town’s top job and was elected mayor. It’s a job he still holds today.
Snodgrass said he knew there would be some flooding in High River in the spring of 2013. After all, the town had experienced other flood events over the years. But, it became apparent to Snodgrass that this one would be different.
“My phone started ringing, saying it’s coming over the banks and it’s coming into downtown High River and it’s going to be full on like we’ve never seen before.”
Snodgrass watched his four-level split home sit under 12 feet (3.7 metres) of water, and his new downtown High River business under five feet (1.5 metres) of water.
What sticks in his mind is all of the commotion at the height of the floods. “The military aircraft going over, scanning the situation, multiple helicopters, jet boats doing rescue efforts. It was a completely overwhelming experience.”
High River town council talked about marking the 10-year anniversary of the floods in some way, but it didn’t seem right.
“We decided not to do anything because three lives were lost directly on the Highwood River; two in High River and one a few kilometers upstream and you’ve got to remember that’s what happened,” said Snodgrass. “Ya, we are very proud of how we came out of it and the rebuild, but when we go back to try and celebrate that day and do any kind of event, there’s a lot of people that still have PTSD over it. It changed all our lives, there’s no question on that.”
Snodgrass says he has spent the past decade making sure new flood mitigation was put in place. “Flood gates, raising the highway to protect the northeast, 8.5 kilometers of berms that protect us from flooding. We are now the most protected community from flood risk in all of Canada.”
Shawn Wiebe — Nanton firefighter
Shawn Wiebe didn’t ask for the nickname of ‘photogenic firefighter’ but a famous moment from the 2013 floods earned him that title.
Wiebe is still a volunteer firefighter with the Nanton Fire Department, a job he held in June of 2013, too.
“Our initial task was to go help evacuate the High River hospital as the waters were coming in”, he recalls.
When he got to the town he says the force of the water was so intense. “On top of the water you could see it moving, but underneath the force is just unreal and the fact that they could move vehicles is just powerful.
Wiebe, on top of his firefighting duties, also worked at a farm equipment shop. So, when the waters filled downtown High River he helped get big combines moving to load people onto and transport them to safety. Downtown streets looked like rivers, so boats were used in the rescue efforts. “As the boats were coming in, we would help people off. One boat that came in there was a frail lady and her husband in there.” Wiebe says he wanted to help her out. “I picked her up and gave her a nice smile and she said ‘the last time I was carried like this was on my wedding night’.” That’s the moment that was caught on camera by Calgary Sun photographer, Lyle Aspinall.
“I didn’t notice cameras, I didn’t notice people. I was just focused on getting people to safety, really,” recalled Wiebe.
So, what was it about that snapshot in time, that resonated with so many people? Wiebe says it sparked a feeling so many needed at that time: “I think with all the devastation that was happening, that smile gave people a glimmer of hope to keep going on. That there’s something to look forward to in the future.”
The woman in the photograph, Sheila Rowland, passed away in May of 2023. Wiebe kept in touch with her over the years and attended her funeral.
Naheed Nenshi: Former Calgary mayor
For as calm as Naheed Nenshi was during Calgary’s State of Local Emergency in 2013, he does admit there was a moment he got scared. It was June 19, 2013, the night before floodwaters took over parts of the city.
“I stood on the banks of the Bow River by the Peace Bridge. It was dark. I have never heard the Bow River so angry and so loud before,” remembered Nenshi. “In that moment, for the first time, that’s when I actually felt a bit scared. I didn’t know what was going to happen.”
Nenshi says that feeling quickly subsided when he crossed the river into Chinatown. “I saw public servants evacuate a seniors home with such care and dignity and love for those citizens and I thought, ‘You know, we are going to be okay.'”
From there on Nenshi says acts of heroism were happening all over the city. “From water workers who risked their lives to protect the quality of the water downstream, to the woman (Bev) who organized 1,500 quilts to be made for people who lost all their family heirlooms.”
Nenshi also remembers going to the funeral of the Calgarian who died in the floods, Lorraine Gerlitz, and learning about her extraordinary life.
In all the devastation, Nenshi says there was no single moment more powerful than the sense of community that magnified out of the floods.
There was a call out on the radio for people to go to McMahon Stadium if they wanted to help in the cleanup efforts. He recalls going to the stadium and seeing thousands of people there who had just showed up to assist in any way they could.
With the floods happening just weeks before the Calgary Stampede, Nenshi was sure they’d have to cancel it. It was in that moment a now-famous catchphrase emerged.
“I remember going down to Stampede (Park) and saying ‘two weeks today is the parade, downtown is closed, I don’t know how we are going to do this’. I think that’s the first time I heard ‘Come hell or high water we are going to make it work.'” That statement was quickly put on T-shirts and became a motto, of sorts, as Albertans were picking up the pieces left behind from the flood waters.
Nenshi says staff was flown into Calgary and volunteers helped to clean up the Stampede grounds, including by putting cedar shavings on the ground. “Two weeks later I rode my horse at the front of that parade down streets that had been flooded and closed two weeks earlier and I thought to myself that this is such an incredible symbol of the power of community, the power of volunteerism, and the attitude in Calgary that we are going to get this done.”
It’s that sense of community that led to Neighbour Day being created. It’s marked every year on the third Saturday in June and is an opportunity for Calgarians to celebrate community spirit and kindness.
Tom Sampson - Former CEMA director
Tom Sampson equates the 2013 floods in Alberta to Niagara Falls, because the speed at which the water moves in the falls is nearly the same as what ran through Calgary.
“We didn’t believe the city could flood like that. We saw flood maps in 2012 that indicated that kind of thing could happen, but I don’t think any of us thought that that extent of water could actually come,” Sampson said. “It’s no wonder we couldn’t manage it.”
Sampson was the director of Calgary’s Emergency Management Agency at the time of the floods and carries many memories from that time, saying there were so many incredible stories, including from the Calgary Zoo.
“The hippos got out. Some firefighters floated a Sea-Can they saw floating by… they actually pushed the Sea-Can with one of the boats and pushed it up against the enclosure door for the hippos.”
He also remembers diverting construction workers from a then under-construction Crowchild Trail LRT expansion project, to help rebuild washed away roads. “We brought them downtown and we repaved Macleod Trail in a day-and-a-half and we rebuilt the Erlton and Stampede CTrain stations.”
Sampson knows this time of year is hard on a number of people who were impacted by the floods, but hopes they can find the silver lining. “There are still people today that are still reeling from that flood so I think the 10-year anniversary will be hard on a number of people, but I hope they remember the community spirit.”
Neil Zeller - Photographer
Neil Zeller was just transitioning to a new career as a photographer in June of 2013. The Peace Bridge was still a relatively new fixture in Calgary and a place many photographers gravitated to to take pictures. It’s where Zeller went the night of June 19.
“I went to the Peace Bridge and I stood there and watched the water rise that night and it kept coming up, coming up, coming up”. Zeller recounted. “The water was just starting to trickle into Memorial Drive and washing over Prince’s Island Park and I was pretty shocked. I thought, this is a big deal.”
He was right. It was a big deal.
Zeller says he wasn’t sure if the ground he was on would just crumble away at any moment. He watched water pour over the Glenmore Reservoir dam, and flow down Macleod Trail and in the streets around City Hall as he drove around the city with his camera in tow. “Every blockade had a city worker sitting in a truck with lights on and it created this, sort of, ethereal view of orange and blue and red – mixing all the colours – and the purple with the police cars and I felt really cared for, like we were being looked after.”
Zeller pointed his lens mostly at the people and community that happened shortly after the flood started. “I went down to Bowness and Sunnyside and there were a lot of hugs, there were a lot of tears. One of the saddest moments was a family dismantling a piano, a family heirloom piano. They were taking it apart piece by piece. I asked them: ‘Why wouldn’t you just push this out the door and garbage it on the street corner like everything else?'” They told Zeller that it was garbage, but they just wanted to slowly take it apart because it meant too much to them to just let go of quickly.
Zeller says he had never felt a greater sense of community. “Kids, masks on and mud up to their waists, cleaning out peoples’ basements and behind that, tables of water and food just showing up and behind that pickup trucks just hauling things away and behind that city services protecting them, closing off areas.”
Zeller says, in all the loss and devastation, he enjoyed watching everybody take care of each other and that it helped him shape his own view of the city.
Shannon Penner - High River resident
Shannon Penner moved into her High River home in 2011 and her family was still settling in. They just bought a new hot tub and were looking forward to finishing the fence in their yard. But, in June of 2013 she got a knock on the door that would change those plans.
“We got the knock on the door to evacuate. The town people said that it was just a precaution and not to worry.”
Penner says they were told to pack an overnight bag and that they should be home the next day. So, they did, but decided to leave their cats at home, putting out some extra food and water for them.
“The next morning it really hit me that this was really serious and that we wouldn’t be going home any time soon.” She says she didn’t believe the water made it from the river to their house until she saw it for herself. Their home was under water.
Staying in their camper for weeks, Penner finally got some good news on Canada Day. Their home was still sitting in water, but their pets were rescued by boat.
It wasn’t until July 15 that they were allowed to return home to see the damage firsthand. “It was extremely overwhelming. I just remember thinking I don’t know what to do or where to start.”
Photos show a water mark part way up their basement door depicting exactly how high the water pooled. Their basement stairwell was washed away. Penner lost keepsakes including photos, a wedding dress and school textbooks, and the family returned home not knowing where their new hot tub went. A neighbour eventually found it 500 metres away as the flood water had taken it on a journey.
Ten years later, Penner is still in the same home. She cleaned it up and made it her dream home.
But, the memories always come back.
“When it gets a little damp in High River or it starts to rain this time of year, there is a certain smell that comes up. I can’t really describe it, but it just reminds me of the smell of the whole town, the smell of my house, the smell of the air. It takes me back to 2013 and it just reminds me of the day, of just walking into the house and seeing the destruction and having all those smells and visualizing all the colours of mold I didn’t know existed.”
Gord Gillies - Former Global News anchor
Gord Gillies, a Global News anchor at the time, was sent out into the field on June 19 to cover, what was then, precautionary measures in Calgary in the off-chance the river overflowed into the city.
“I was sent out to cover the building of a berm at Fourth Street and Elbow Drive. It was the Safeway parking lot we were set up in. Non-stop truck after truck after truck, they were building this berm – precautionary. We got there about 4:30 p.m. and at that time there was a warning that they might have to evacuate parts of the downtown.
“By 5:30 p.m. some communities were, door-to-door, being told to get out and, by 7 p.m. that night, it was the whole downtown (being told to) get out of town.”
Gillies went home and by the next morning he saw just how bad it all was. “It was like Mother Nature said: ‘berm? nah, forget it’. All that effort, truck after truck after truck meant nothing and then the downtown flooded.”
He says people were starved for information and Global News stayed on the air for 19 straight hours. “When you saw the Saddledome and all the downtown under water, then you knew this was a massive story.” He recalls being on the anchor desk and, at some point during the several hours of live coverage, he spotted something from the Global One News helicopter that sticks in his mind to this day.
“We were getting our first look at what the devastation was downtown. The chopper goes over Macleod Trail, over Stanley Park…. and it’s underwater and I’m looking and right nearby I see this blue thing in a big pool of water. The camera goes in tighter and the blue thing was the blue seat from where the lifeguard sits. So, when you’re in a pool and the lifeguard sits up about six feet (1.8 metres), that was just about under water, and that’s where I went: ‘Wow, what are we looking at here?’ Unbelievable.”
Gillies says it was the first time Calgary saw its own landmarks under water and, once the water receded, people really stepped up.
“In a weird, horrible way, the community came together to help each other. It’s something I never saw before and I grew up here. That was a silver lining. But, man, what a mess.”
Pauline Higgins - Former Global News helicopter traffic reporter
Pauline Higgins was used to an early alarm clock as a helicopter traffic reporter for Global Calgary’s morning show.
But the morning of June 20th, 2013, she woke up to her phone ringing instead. It was the news station. “It was before 5 a.m. Them asking me to get to the airport as quickly as I could”. That would prove to be a challenge as, by this time, all the bridges in the city were closed. Still, Higgins made it to the Global One News helicopter and up in the air in ongoing storm conditions. “It wasn’t just the storm or the heavy rain flow, but there was a lot of wind throwing us around.”
Higgins says seeing the sheer amount of water taking over so much of southern Alberta was overwhelming. She’d fly over Calgary landmarks, capturing on camera what became an unrecognizable downtown. She also flew south to High River, one of the hardest hit areas. “Some of the homes were two-storey homes and you could only see the roof,” Higgins says of just how high the water was in parts of the town.
Higgins spotted washed away bridges and submerged vehicles from the air, alongside a vast amount of prairie landscape that was hard to differentiate from the river in some spots.
“Flying over the farmers’ fields. They usually have two, three, four hundred cattle,” Higgins remembered. “The floods flooded the fields but would leave these little hills. From a distance it would just be a black spot in the water and then, as you got closer, you could see that it was hundreds of cattle trying not to get wet.”
Higgins says after the rivers receded, the next number of weeks saw the helicopter camera zero in on the cleanup. “Just debris that littered the riverbanks and neighbourhoods,” she said. “We would see the big piles of where everything would end up and we would see people hauling things and it was weeks and weeks of that. So, that evoked a lot of emotion, too.”
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