On June 20th, 2013, I never would have dreamed that while I was painting at 3:30 am that I would be evacuated from my studio, home, friends, and community within the next 24 hours. It's amazing how quickly life can change.
It was sad to return to our gallery 10 days after the flood to find so much in ruin. We were not the only ones, and heaven knows southern albertans have a lot of flood stories to tell.
In a nutshell, we were rescued by 2 brave Cayley firemen and their front-end loader operators at about 6:30 pm. After rescuing 4 more citizens and two service dogs, (that bucket was full!) we were dropped off near the Hitching Post. At that point we were directed to walk to the edge of the next body of water where we climbed into a combine to be taken through fast, deep waters to the Fire Station area. Next we were instructed to board a bus to Blackie where we were dropped off at the school. It was now an evacuation centre. Thanks to the very generous offer of friends, we have been staying in comfort in their lovely home between High River and Okotoks. We can't thank them enough for the sweet haven their place has become for us during this stressful time.
June 20th was a very surreal day, and now, over a month later. we are still feeling a little dazed. No one imagined that the water would ever come up that high, let alone realize the very real danger we were all in.
And now, here we are, 6 weeks later, trying to rebuild. It's a tough road, but we do know this...... we want to stay. We want to keep sharing our love of creativity and beauty. We love this community. We have more work to do, but at this point we have decided to have a "soft" opening in about 2 weeks. The floors and walls will not be totally repaired, but they tell us that it will happen in the next 4 months. The artwork, however, will be amazing and the artists eager to share their love of creativity with you!
We will keep you posted as to when the date will be!
In the meantime, it's time to move forward; to getting back to "normal"!
It was sad to return to our gallery 10 days after the flood to find so much in ruin. We were not the only ones, and heaven knows southern albertans have a lot of flood stories to tell.
In a nutshell, we were rescued by 2 brave Cayley firemen and their front-end loader operators at about 6:30 pm. After rescuing 4 more citizens and two service dogs, (that bucket was full!) we were dropped off near the Hitching Post. At that point we were directed to walk to the edge of the next body of water where we climbed into a combine to be taken through fast, deep waters to the Fire Station area. Next we were instructed to board a bus to Blackie where we were dropped off at the school. It was now an evacuation centre. Thanks to the very generous offer of friends, we have been staying in comfort in their lovely home between High River and Okotoks. We can't thank them enough for the sweet haven their place has become for us during this stressful time.
June 20th was a very surreal day, and now, over a month later. we are still feeling a little dazed. No one imagined that the water would ever come up that high, let alone realize the very real danger we were all in.
And now, here we are, 6 weeks later, trying to rebuild. It's a tough road, but we do know this...... we want to stay. We want to keep sharing our love of creativity and beauty. We love this community. We have more work to do, but at this point we have decided to have a "soft" opening in about 2 weeks. The floors and walls will not be totally repaired, but they tell us that it will happen in the next 4 months. The artwork, however, will be amazing and the artists eager to share their love of creativity with you!
We will keep you posted as to when the date will be!
In the meantime, it's time to move forward; to getting back to "normal"!
