Flooded out families from Braeburn Estates have begun moving back into their townhouse units this week while others are still being temporarily housed throughout the community.
The Canadian Red Cross was expected to wrap up its disaster services response in Olds yesterday, six days after a storm water detention pond in Miller Meadows overflowed its banks, flooding out the 30-unit complex at 5630 53 Ave.
Town of Olds public works crews and the fire department evacuated residents last Tuesday night, when water flooded out the alley, the interior courtyard of the property, and the interior of some townhouses.
Units 9 - 14, which back onto the alley fronting the north side of the storm water retention pond, bore the brunt of the flooding, said site manager Rebecca Taylor.
“There, it reached the whole height of the basement and onto the main floor,” Taylor said.
Many of the more than 70 residents living in the complex were voluntarily evacuated, with little more than what was on their backs, to the Ramada and Best Western hotels.
“Staying in a hotel is nice, I guess. But it's not home and it takes a toll on you,” said Taylor, who was one of the first residents to move back into the complex Friday night.
Braeburn owner RVB Property Managements Ltd. has a flood restoration company fixing flooded units.
Public health officials say the units can only be reinhabitated if they suffice minimum health and housing requirements.
Twenty-four out of the 30 units were being rented at the time of the flood.
“It's devastating. We lost a lot of personal things that are gone forever now. Pictures of my girls' mom were down there. The only pictures of her,” said Braeburn resident Jason MacDonald.
The flood damaged two of his three children's bedrooms.
MacDonald was one of many of the residents who did not have tenant insurance and said he was “in a real bind.”
The Town of Olds provided assistance to 50 people - 30 adults and 20 children before the Red Cross was called in Thursday morning.
Two response teams with the Red Cross Personal Disaster Assistance Team (PDAT) in Red Deer responded immediately after being called in.
PDAT provided the temporarily homeless individuals with shelter, food, clothing, hygiene kits, baby needs, teddy bears, blankets as well as referrals to other organizations which would be able to assist with any long-term needs.
The scope of the situation persuaded Red Cross officials to extend the typical amount of time they provide relief to five days from the average 72 hours.
“We are still actively working on it to determine the scope of things moving forward,” Edward McIntyre, Red Cross program coordinator of disaster management, said yesterday.
Town staff met with affected residents who were still staying in motels over the weekend, said Olds CAO Norm McInnes.
“They were told when the Red Cross pulls out Monday, that people find ways to centre themselves,” said McInnes. “We're hoping the majority of families have somewhere they can go until they can get back into (their homes),” he said.
For some, that may be a while.
Belfor, a disaster recovery and property restoration company is completing restoration work to the infrastructure of the units by apartment block, as per authorization of RVB, says the site manager. None of the blocks had been fully completed by yesterday.
Residents were requested to go into their units Friday and remove everything affected by the flood so restoration crews could get in and do work.
“We said no, we wouldn't,” said Unit #17 resident Kerri Laidlaw, whose son suffers from asthma. There's feces and everything else down there. I don't want to add to our health concerns.”
The request for residents to clear out flood affected belongings prompted concerned complaints to the Alberta Health Services environmental public health central zone.
“There's some argument as to whether it's sewer or overland flooding in there,” said Garth Gosselin, supervisor of environmental health, central zone, Alberta Health Services.
In a case like this, Gosselin said the health risk is the same.
“Even in floodwater there is fecal coliform, total coliforms,” said Gosselin.
“Both have the potential for mould growth,” he added.
Public health staff in Olds had already been called to the site Wednesday by tenants and disaster response officials.
They conducted a risk assessment, said Gosselin, and concluded that because of steps that had been taken, there was no need to condemn the units.
“That was an option to us - we could have declared the units unfit for habitation what with lack of heat, power and everything but since no one was in there it wasn't necessary.”
He added that staff made it clear to the owner that before residents could move back in, another health inspection would have to be satisfactorily completed.
“We're working with the owner to ensure prior to occupancy, it meets the minimum housing and health standards,” said Gosselin.
