Our last week has consisted of few other things than sand, wind, rain, and worrying about the Assinaboine River.
This sight is one that has been greeting us on the way out of and into our community for the last month and then some, with little change. Fear and worry are your first thoughts as you get up in the morning, but the worst feeling is anxiety, not knowing what's to come for that day and what will happen. A selfish part of us cheers and echos: "Open the Hoop and Holler Bend already", while a compassionate part can't even begin to phantom what people who are going to be effected by it are feeling. With lumps in our throats we rigged up a load to go to Elie and Portage for three consecutive days. If these people are going to suffer while we are going to be some of the ones who will be 'saved' we will do all we can to help, we reason. For the most part we dyked, while our muscles were screaming, sheer determination kept us going. Other parts of our days were filled with manually filling thousands after thousands of bags and then loading them on to pick up trucks. Digging through huge mounds of gravel and sand to get to the bags that hadn't been damaged. Eating dust as the wind picked up and threw it all around us. I don't have pics of the worst day, when rain and snow soaked us, and sand clung to us, but no matter how uncomfortable it was something kept us going. Some days we got together with two or three different colonies and dyked around 5 houses before we called it quits for the day. It was amazing to see the effort and volunteer work that was going on, the working together to prepare for the worst, the people who were going to be effected, joking and laughing, and thanking us continually... I don't care what people say...I'm PROUD that Manitoba is my home... While the Hoop and Holler Bend has been cut, we can still hear and see helicopters monitoring our dyke and the swelling Assiniboine River. We were issued a warning to conduct a plan in case of a breech in the dike but hopefully it won't come to that.
**UPDATE ON RIVER SITUATION: RIVER IS RECEEDING, THOUGH STILL BEING CLOSELY MONITERED :D**
This sight is one that has been greeting us on the way out of and into our community for the last month and then some, with little change. Fear and worry are your first thoughts as you get up in the morning, but the worst feeling is anxiety, not knowing what's to come for that day and what will happen. A selfish part of us cheers and echos: "Open the Hoop and Holler Bend already", while a compassionate part can't even begin to phantom what people who are going to be effected by it are feeling. With lumps in our throats we rigged up a load to go to Elie and Portage for three consecutive days. If these people are going to suffer while we are going to be some of the ones who will be 'saved' we will do all we can to help, we reason. For the most part we dyked, while our muscles were screaming, sheer determination kept us going. Other parts of our days were filled with manually filling thousands after thousands of bags and then loading them on to pick up trucks. Digging through huge mounds of gravel and sand to get to the bags that hadn't been damaged. Eating dust as the wind picked up and threw it all around us. I don't have pics of the worst day, when rain and snow soaked us, and sand clung to us, but no matter how uncomfortable it was something kept us going. Some days we got together with two or three different colonies and dyked around 5 houses before we called it quits for the day. It was amazing to see the effort and volunteer work that was going on, the working together to prepare for the worst, the people who were going to be effected, joking and laughing, and thanking us continually... I don't care what people say...I'm PROUD that Manitoba is my home... While the Hoop and Holler Bend has been cut, we can still hear and see helicopters monitoring our dyke and the swelling Assiniboine River. We were issued a warning to conduct a plan in case of a breech in the dike but hopefully it won't come to that.**UPDATE ON RIVER SITUATION: RIVER IS RECEEDING, THOUGH STILL BEING CLOSELY MONITERED :D**
2 comments:
great pictures, Mel... good for you for all the work you've been doing...
interesting pics :) I defiantly couldn't watch news without a lump of sadness forming in my throat,feeling awful for the people who will be affected by the controlled breach... but all the while silently screaming on the inside just do it already instead of just talking about it.
I commend you on your sandbagging efforts, I'm sure it is appreciated by many.
Post a Comment