Note: the following column was first published in 2011 in memory of the event that took over Moose Jaw on a warm, sunny day in mid-April. Those memories are triggered nearly every year as the winter snow begins a quick melt.
The column is reprised this week as those memories live on:
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With one eye on the frozen tips of the tulip crop that emerged too soon to be safe, another eye on the snow melting in the yard, and both ears on the reports of potential flooding for this area, it is impossible to forget the events of years ago in Moose Jaw.
While everyone remembers where they were on a particular day in their lives — the Kennedy assassination, the Royal wedding, the Quebec crisis, for instance — I especially remember the events of April 18, 1974.
It had been a hard winter that year, with oldtimers suggesting it was the most aggressive winter in their memory, piling snow higher than it had in decades and for as far as the eye could see. And it was cold and stayed cold longer than the calendar demanded.
But then it got hot, quickly, without much warning, and the snow melted and the rivers and streams rose, and wham, just like that, the flood waters began their journeys where previously no water had been before.
That April 18 offered me the opportunity to view the rapid melt from the birdseye perch of a Canadian Armed Forces helicopter. No one in that helicopter really knew just how quickly the flood waters would take over the city but it didn’t take us long to find out.
The call from my aunt came just a few hours later — Grandma’s apartment had water in it and could we go and give her a hand. She lived on the 300 block of Fairford Street West. After a quick call to the parents on South Hill, we aimed our car at Grandma’s building, shocked to see how much water had accumulated on her street. We carefully found a higher spot in the backyard of her building and waded through the water to her front door.
Meanwhile, the parents arrived in the front, swirling waters not stopping dad from reaching his destination.
Inside the apartment, Grandma sat, her feet on the rungs of the chair, just barely out of the water. My cousin was there trying to salvage some of her belongings, including family photos. Dad was more worried about getting Grandma out of the water. With no help whatsoever from the “youngsters,” he lifted her off the chair and deposited her in the car, ordering us to grab a few things for her. We barely had time to throw in her purse and a change of clothes before he was roaring through the water to higher ground.
I don’t recall where our cousin went after we locked her apartment, but we went to work, spending the next 24 hours watching the city go under water in the downtown and in the parks and the flats. Sparking power lines in the water kept Housemate and others from boating on High Street beyond Fourth Avenue Northwest.
There would be no concert in the Crescent Park amphitheatre that evening as water reached the top of the stage’s backdrop. South Hill was cut off from North Hill, and lights burned late at city hall as municipal officials wept at the destruction, and tried to figure out what to do first, emergency planning never quite living up to the reality of such an event.
Volunteers were out in force, filling sandbags and helping their neighbours. Mom prepared sandwiches and dad delivered them to the workers nearby at the main waterway. He then stayed on to fill sandbags and help where possible, and continued to help, as did hundreds of others, for several days after the initial rush of water.
Fast forward through the years, and never since 1974 has Moose Jaw experienced such levels of water. But each year as the melt begins, there is careful attention paid to the potential for flooding when warmer weather arrives.
Moose Jaw and area families know exactly where they were on that April 18 and keenly remember the aftermath. I still wonder where my cousin slept that night.
Joyce Walter can be reached at [email protected]
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
