Downtown Calgary: Flood Relief & Information Sources

Dear friends of Downtown Calgary. We’ve compiled a few sources to help you volunteer, donate, and to find out the latest with the re-opening of Downtown Calgary.

You can also follow us at https://twitter.com/downtowncalgary for updates on the status of Downtown Calgary.

Here are just a few of the many volunteer organizations that are organizing volunteers to help with the clean up:

• YYC Helps
• Samaritans Purse
• Siksika Nation Facebook page
• The Drop-In Centre: The DI has reached it’s goal of supplies and volunteers and now requests cash donations to help them rebuild.
  

DONATE

• Help with flood relief for Calgary and Southern Alberta through the Canadian Red Cross.

UP TO DATE INFORMATION

The City of Calgary will have the most up-to-date information on the floods, neighborhood access and transit:

• Follow the City of Calgary’s Twitter feed
• Follow the City of Calgary on Facebook
• City of Calgary Blog for general updates
• City of Calgary Frequently Asked Questions
• Calgary Transit updates

UPDATE - JUNE 28TH - 8AM:

Until now, The City has offered water pumping services to residential homes and is now in a position to extend the same service to Calgary businesses. This is an important step in getting Calgary’s economy back on line and Calgarians back to work.

Please feel free to share this new information to any business owners you may know.

If you need water pumped out of your building you can:

1. Fill out a “new request” form on The City of Calgary 311 mobile app
2. Visit your Community Support Centre
3. Visit Calgary.ca to fill out the online service request
4.  Call 311

Please ensure there is someone 18 years or older available to allow crews access to the property when they arrive. If no one is there, yellow tape will be placed on your door to indicate crews were there and you will need to resubmit your request.

UPDATE - JUNE 27TH 12:00PM: ENMAX is estimating that the remaining Downtown buildings that are without electricity to be back with power by Saturday July 29th at the earliest. The State of Emergency is still in effect and we request that the Downtown core be avoided. Here an official map of buildings still without power: PDF map link

UPDATE - JUNE 27TH 11:30AM: The City of Calgary is asking people to stay out of downtown if possible, and to refrain from using roads in the area. Traffic congestion is causing issues for emergency crews who are responding to the CP Rail issue in Ogden. If you must travel in the inner city, please considering using alternate forms of transportation including Bicycle, Transit or walking.

Downtown Businesses: A ‘Business to Business’ tool for flood relief has been launched by the Calgary Chamber of Commerce. http://www.calgarychamber.com/back2business. If you have a business in the downtown core, please fill out this survey regarding opening preparedness. The Calgary Downtown Association and Calgary Tourism are hoping to keep tabs on who’s open for business and who needs more time. https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/tourismcalgary

UPDATE - June 26 4:15PM: The Calgary Downtown Association office will reopen on June 27th @ 8am. All scheduled events are cancelled until further notice. Here is the most up-to-date map on downtown access: http://www.cocnmp.com/eoc/Access_Zones_June26.pdf

If you represent a Downtown business, please fill out this survey to let us know if you are ready to open https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/tourismcalgary. If you need flood related business resources, they are available at the Calgary Chamber of Commerce website: http://www.calgarychamber.com/flood

UPDATE - June 25 2:45PM: Parts of downtown are now open to the public, however much of the east side of the core is still restricted. The C-train is running downtown but there are no stops at Centre Street or City Hall stations. Businesses will open as they are able, check with your employer before attempting to return to work. Carpool to help keep traffic congestion down if you are coming downtown to work. See this map for more info on closed areas: http://google.org/crisismap/2013-alberta-floods

All Stephen Avenue events including June 26th’s Pop-up Picnic are cancelled until further notice.

UPDATE - June 25 12:15PM: An interactive map has been posted with community closures and other pertinent info. http://google.org/crisismap/2013-alberta-floods - While some areas of Downtown are open, and some buildings have power, please check with your employer before venturing downtown for work. If you must come downtown for work, please CARPOOL. This will help ease the traffic congestion created by road closures in the area.

UPDATE - June 25 11:00AM: Certain areas of downtown have been reopened. Please contact your employer before returning to work Downtown. West The city of Calgary website is back up - See here for City services disrupted by the flood - http://www.calgary.ca/General/flood2013/Pages/Service-disruptions-due-to-flooding.aspx

Some C-train service has been restored to certain lines. Shuttles have been put in place to service areas of downtown still without C-train. http://www.calgarytransit.com/html/ctrain_service_20130625.html

UPDATE - June 24 11:45pm: Your Alberta Pre-loaded debit card update: to register for #yycflood evacuee relief cards, call the Red Cross at 1-866-696-6484, not 311. More information here:  http://bit.ly/178oZ76

UPDATE - June 24 2:10pm: Recognizing the power of what we can accomplish when we work together and your outpouring of offers to help Calgarians affected by the flood, The City of Calgary has set up a Volunteer Centre to bring able hands and recovery needs together.

At this time, we’re asking people to simply register their availability. This way, as specific needs are identified, we will already have a pool of volunteer resources available to draw from. We are currently not looking for specific skill sets (i.e. plumbers, electricians, etc.) We are in need of generalists.

Volunteers can register as an individuals or groups. To register, send an email with the following information to [email protected]:
• Name
• Phone number
• Availability – For example, if you’re available only between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. on any day but Tuesday, include that information in your email. But please, keep it simple!

Volunteers will be assigned as requests come in from re-entry centres/muster points.
Volunteers can also register by calling any of the following numbers:
• 587-998-7817
• 587-998-7835
• 587-998-7837
• 587-998-7832

FUNDRAISERS, FOOD & COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

Many community members are stepping up to help all of the volunteers and also raise money for those in need.

First Flip: The Downtown Calgary Association is taking donations at our First Flip pancake breakfast for the YWCA. The YWCA in downtown Calgary suffered major hardships during the flood and your $2 suggested donation will help them rebuild.

Stampede 101 t-shirt fundraiser: The Calgary Stampede is selling ‘Hell or High Water’ t-shirts. Proceeds from the sale of the shirts will go to the Red Cross.

BAD PORTRAITS: Mandy Stobo from Bad Portraits has created a Scuba Nenshi portrait with all proceeds going to the flood relief at AB Red Cross. If you want to help, buy one here: http://badportraitproject.com/floodrelief.cfm

CALGARY CLEAN UP: First official task, as per request of the City of Calgary, starts June 24. Like our CALGARY CLEAN UP dedicated INFORMATION Channel (we are aggregating from the authorities and media here):
https://www.facebook.com/CalgaryCleanUp https://www.facebook.com/events/548675025188171/

Checkout our website for more volunteering info: Flood 2013 Resources

Tagged as: alberta flood, calgary flood, downtown calgary, flood relief, help, yycflood

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