Wednesday, December 18, 2013

FLOOD - The Other “F” Word?


FLOOD - The Other “F” Word?

Gordon Lightfoot, the icon of Canadian folk music, intones, “When the skies of November turn gloomy” as a warning to ships plying the waters of Lake Superior, even big iron ore carriers. In land locked and generally water short Alberta, Lightfoot’s words don’t have the same cachet, but recent storm events have begun to sensitize us.

The floods of 1995, 2002, 2005 and now 2013 have made us start to search the skies of May and June for signs of impending doom. Spring rain used to fill our prairie souls with joy; now the same rain, especially when it persists for days, fills us with a sense of angst.

With recent experiences we’ve started to look at a flood as the other “F” word. Are we justified in thinking of this phenomenon in such harsh terms?

-Lorne Fitch, P. Biol. Cows and Fish - Alberta Riparian Habitat Management Society

Read more here: http://bit.ly/1i2VtYd

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