Residents of Riverside RV Village are thankful that the amount of damage received from the June flood is less than what was expected.
Residents are back in their units and there has been no damage to recreational vehicles. However, the estimated cost of overall damage to the park is said to be close to $75,000.
“Everybody in here has a sleeping cabin and a shed for equipment and tools and stuff, and a lot of them were flooded because they're on the ground,” said John Poirier, the vice-president of the Riverside RV Condominium Association.
“The RVs of course are up on wheels so they're pretty safe, but the sheds and the sleeping cabins took a pretty good hit,” he said.
Kent Pashko, from L7 Contracting, has been working with Poirier at the park to assess the damage and he said it's looking close to $75,000.
“Quick action by over 40 park property owners, using sandbags provided by the Town of Sundre, diverted the water away from the park and back into the Red Deer River,” said Poirier.
“Although some damage occurred to the road network in the park, including the washout of two culverts, these measures prevented any serious damage,” he said.
The water that breached the Red Deer River west of Sundre, in the Coyote Creek area, travelled overland and entered through the south boundary of the RV park, he said.
“We've fixed the riverbank, so we're not getting any more erosion on the riverbank. But now the water is breaking out of the river further west and coming across country down through the golf course and the airport and hitting the back of our property. That's where our major problem is,” he explained last Wednesday.
At the time the park was evacuated on June 20, there were few residents on the property as most of the units are temporary summer homes, he said.
An elderly woman, in her late 80s, panicked when she heard the evacuation news, fell and possibly broke her wrist, he said. She was taken from her residence at the park in an ambulance.
“We were quite concerned because we had this same problem last year, exactly the same problem last year, but not quite as severe,” he said, when referring to the cause of the flooding in the park.
“Last year, in May, we lost the same two culverts as we did this year, but not near the damage,” he said.
He believes the eight spurs that town officials had built along the Red Deer River last year saved the park.
“The protective spurs constructed during the winter and early spring last year worked perfectly and prevented any damage or erosion of the riverbank adjacent to the RV park,” he said.
“If were not for these spurs, there is no doubt that serious damage would have occurred to not only the RV park, but very probably to private and municipally owned property in the Town of Sundre.”
The flooding began at the park early on June 21 and residents began to sandbag areas on the property the next day. Around 50 pallets of sandbags were used at the property.
“Without these sandbags the success achieved in protecting the RV park would have been impossible,” he said.
“We were amazed in the park. We put the word out (on Saturday) and within a couple of hours we had 40 to 50 people show up in pickup trucks and we were hauling sandbags,” he said.
He has been receiving phone calls from people saying that if they had known what was going on, they would have been more than willing to help.
“As soon as we sandbagged it, the amount of water going down through the park flooding all the private property pretty well stopped, so it was really successful,” he said.
“There was an emergency escape route road that goes out the back of the park and that's what's pretty well washed out. So we're going to have to rebuild that, so if we build it higher, we may be able to stop the water or control the amount of water, that's coming into the creeks in the park and force the rest of the water out in the river,” he explained.
He is happy with the amount of support that the park has received from the town.
“The town, Ron Baker in particular, and the people that manned the Emergency Operations Centre, I think did a fantastic job. The volunteers that filled the sandbags--if it wasn't for those sandbags, we would have been in serious trouble.”
Muriel McCallum is a resident at the park and says she was lucky to have no damage to her property.
“I'm feeling good now that the worst is over with, and I think that we made a tremendous impact on saving the park,” said Al Friesen, property owner at the park, who was one of the many people to help sandbag on Saturday, June 22.
Mark Stewart, also a property owner at the park, says his lot was underwater, but that there is no damage to his RV, only on the lawn. He said he was happy to help sandbag on the Saturday and thankful that his property is OK, as it is one of the closest to the river.
