WORLD
City of Calgary says home rink of Calgary Flames flooded 10 rows deep
Baku, June 22 (AZERTAC). Officials say there is little that can be done to pump the water out of the building because there is simply too much inside.
At least three people were killed when floodwaters that devastated much of southern Alberta led authorities to evacuate the western Canadian city of Calgary`s entire downtown. Inside the city`s hockey arena, the waters reached as high as the 10th row.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Friday called the level of flooding "stunning" and said officials don`t know yet if it will get worse, but said the water has peaked and stabilized and noted that the weather has gotten better.
Overflowing rivers washed out roads and bridges, soaked homes and turned streets into dirt-brown waterways around southern Alberta. Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt. Patricia Neely told reporters three were dead and two bodies were recovered. The two bodies recovered are the two men who had been seen floating lifeless in the Highwood River near High River on Thursday, she said.
Harper, a Calgary resident, said he never imagined there would be a flood of this magnitude in this part of Canada.
Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi said the water levels have reached a peak, but have not declined.
Twenty-five neighborhoods in the city, with an estimated 75,000 people, have already been evacuated due to floodwaters in Calgary, a city of more than a million people that hosted the 1988 Winter Olympics and serves as the center of Canada`s oil industry.Alberta Premier Alison Redford said Medicine Hat, east of Calgary, was under a mandatory evacuation order affecting 10,000 residents. The premier warned that communities downstream of Calgary had not yet felt the full force of the floodwaters.
About 350,000 people work in downtown Calgary on a typical day. However, officials said very few people need to be moved out, since many heeded warnings and did not go to work Friday.
A spokesman for Canada`s defense minister said 1,300 soldiers from a base in Edmonton were being deployed to the flood zone.
Police were asking residents who were forced to leave the nearby High River area to register at evacuation shelter. The Town of High River remained under a mandatory evacuation order.
In downtown Calgary, water was inundating homes and businesses in the shadow of skyscrapers. Water has swamped cars and train tracks.
The city said the home rink of the National Hockey League`s Calgary Flames flooded and the water inside was 10 rows deep. That would mean the dressing rooms are likely submerged as well.