Two years after devastating 2013 floods in southern Alberta, university students are analyzing the hectic event through the eyes of the MD of Bighorn.
An educational video surrounding the Bighorn floods with commentary from Reeve Dene Cooper was produced to provide Royal Rhodes University (RRU) students a vicarious form of learning through the experiences of disaster-struck communities.
Situational awareness during the floods and how decision-making in a local state of emergency was influenced made the MD a unique area to focus on, said RRU professor and video creator Jean Slick.
With the MD’s western communities on the base of the Canadian Rocky Mountains, Slick said in terms of rainfall and the speed of flooding, there wasn’t much warning or response time for residents compared to other flood-affected communities such as Calgary or High River.
Slick was in the process of developing the Disaster Response and Sustainable Recovery course at the Victoria, B.C.-based university when she reached out to the MD.
“To learn from other peoples’ experiences is valuable in this field where you may not have a significant depth of disaster experience,” said Slick, director of the School of Humanitarian Studies.
The total cost of the pricey floods was approximately $6 billion provincially, and during the event, the MD declared a local state of emergency, as did municipal neighbours Banff and Canmore.
“One of the particular things Dene talks about is how this was an unprecedented event that had not happened in recent times,” she said. “(Cooper) talking about that is so much different than students actually reading the analog factor, so it really brings it to life.”
After hearing Cooper as a guest speaker in Calgary this past April at the Ready at a Moment’s Notice conference – focusing on emergency responses, military preparedness and disaster mitigation – Slick reached out to Cooper.
Slick attended the conference as a speaker as well, regarding how education is influencing work related to mitigation and recovery.
She asked Cooper to share his thoughts and in-depth knowledge during the rapidly evolving event and its later influence on the community in an educational video she was developing.
“(Cooper) was very credible and very passionate,” said Slick. “I really liked the fact that he represented not a big city perspective, so to speak, and that he was speaking from his perspective both from as a community citizen and as the reeve.”
The interview was conducted over a Skype-like video feed, and Cooper says reliving those memories two years later, he recalled the “chaos of the event” and “exhaustion” that the community, including himself, is still affected by.
“Following the state of local emergency, the slow steps to rebuild when the problem is very obvious and the restoration can’t even be envisioned in its totality,” Cooper said.
“I was also surprised, in talking about the events, how your emotional system and your thoughts are clear, but how your emotional system then starts to regress back to some of the anxiety that was evolved during the state of emergency.”
Harsh floods hit the Hamlet of Exshaw hardest with approximately 220 homes affected. There are still residents displaced with three trailers of temporary flood housing in Exshaw still occupied.
With over 20 years in the disaster management field, Slick wants to make sure the research RRU does stays relevant to communities like the MD.
“My own research is how we learn from cases and experiences of others,” she said.
To view the video, it can be found on the Outlook website (rmoutlook.com) under this article.
