Calgary to shelter High River evacuees
CALGARY — As more High River residents prepare to return home Monday, the city announced Sunday a site is being set up in southeast Calgary for evacuees needing temporary housing while their floodravaged town undergoes recovery and reconstruction.
The City of Calgary was asked by the province to provide land with access to water, sewer and electricity for up to 1,000 High River residents.
“We’re opening our city and our arms to displaced residents,” Mayor Naheed Nenshi told reporters Sunday night.
Construction of the site started Saturday in southeast Calgary’s Great Plains industrial area, and it will be done over the next two weeks.
The temporary accommodation facility in Calgary will also be open to evacuees from Kananaskis, Canmore and even Calgary who were displaced by floods, said Shane Schreiber, director of the High River task force, which is helping residents get back in their homes.
He said the goal of these facilities is to get people out of evacuation centres in the area, including in Nanton and Blackie.
“We’d like to move people off the cots in those evacuation centres and into better, more comfortable housing,” he said.
Nenshi, meanwhile, said the city also plans to help the Siksika Nation, located about 80 kilometres east of Calgary along the Bow River. Upwards of 250 houses have been damaged there, displacing at least 800 people.
However, Bruce Burrell, head of the Calgary Emergency Management Agency, said there are no immediate plans to build such sites for Calgarians as the city is still trying to get a better count of how many citizens will require temporary housing. He wants those numbers narrowed down before going to the province for assistance.
Calgary, High River and other neighbouring communities are in the midst of mopping up and assessing losses after the historic flood washed through southern Alberta last week, killing at least four people and wreaking millions — possibly billions — of dollars in damage.
Sunday marked the first day residents of Calgary and Canmore were able to access preloaded debit cards from the province, which are intended to help evacuees deal with immediate expenses.
To qualify for one, flood victims must have received an evacuation order and must have been out of their homes for at least seven days.
Human Services Minister Dave Hancock declined to guess how many cards might be handed out in Calgary, saying only that the government is “prepared to meet the demand.”
In the first three days the debit cards were handed out, about 4,100 payments totalling $10.25 million supported about 10,250 people, the province said.
Meanwhile, more than 50 assessment teams have been deployed to Calgary to review properties in the city, Burrell said. Those members will be checking on the state and rate of reconstruction for damaged buildings, and how many tenants or residents will need to find temporary homes.
Some buildings in the downtown area will have to have their electrical systems — including boiler systems, heating ventilation and air conditioning — redesigned and rebuilt after sustaining significant damage by turbid water full of silt and contaminants, Burrell said.