Flood of 2011

I have been photographing the flood preparation for 2011 as we live right beside the Assiniboine River. We were told to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Since April we have been cleaning out our basement, and trying to prepare our home and our family for a potential flood. As many of you know from the news coverage, things got pretty scary in our area, and still remain pretty tense. As I blog about this flood I am still evacuated from my home. We are not in the line of the controlled breach, rather we live along the weakest portion of the Assiniboine dike so we were manditorily evacuated because they felt it was no longer safe for us to be in our home in case of an accidental breach. We are so grateful for all of the support we've received from friends and family. Words cannot begin to express our gratitude. Here are some of the many, many images I have for the Flood of 2011.

Here we are, monitoring the Assiniboine.  Still smiling.....

The river is higher and wider than we have ever seen it.

The overflow along the river filled up in a matter of one day. Scary.

We have never, ever seen water in this area by our home.

The overflow, the dike.....our home.

We get snow - not what any of us needed.

The boys have handled this whole flood situation so well.

My beautiful trees along the dike were removed in order to build up our dike.  Kids thought it was cool - I did not.

Water everywhere.

The Military showed up by our home....I got very concerned.

My kids thought this looked like the "Toy STory" Movie.  I thought it looked surreal.

News media, military.....our home went from a peaceful, quiet, private place to chaos.

Mother's Day - flood scare continues.

The road to our home, water was just about to the top of the road.

The sandbagging efforts renewed my faith in humanity. It was quite a sight to see.  This community is amazing.

Main Street in Oakville - my boys snadbagged and were happy to do so.

The scene around our home has been helicopters flying sandbags over to our dike. It is the weakest point along the Assiniboine so the military have been re-enforcing the dike for two weeks now.   At one point there were tanks, nine helicopters and well over a 100 military working just a mile down from our home.  Surreal.

The Assiniboine.

The Portage Diversion.

Friday the 13th.  We were presented with our Mandatory Evacuation Notice. It was a bit unexpected, but we managed to get out with the help of some amazing friends.  We are now staying at Kris's cousin's in Oakville and awaiting the news of when we can return home.

My brother drove down from Grandview and helped sandbag for a couple days.  Thanks Lance.  This is our "surprised" look when we were evacuated.  Not funny I know - but it is how we cope.....making jokes!

My amazing friend Lori Miller, just showed up without being asked to help.  What would we do without these people in our lives?  So grateful.

Kris doesn't find my humour near as funny as me. ;)

I drove out to our home and the military presence is still there, and they continue to re-enforce our dike around our home.  Hopefuilly we can go home soon.

Sandbagging efforts continue in Oakville on Sunday.

One bonus to this evacuation - the boys get to ride on pavement!! If you're a farm kid - you will totally get how fun that can be!

That's it - I have had enough of this flood! LOL.  My Mom didn't find the picture below funny!