Recovering from the Alberta floods: One family’s journey from devastation to peace of mind

Guest post by Diana Coulter, information officer for the Canadian Red Cross Alberta floods operation.
Photo credit J. Keith Howie.
 
Living with seven kids in four tiny motel rooms for months on end following devastating floods might test the patience of many people, but Phillomene Stevens is just grateful her family is safe.
 
“I have no idea what we would have done if the Red Cross hadn’t put us here. No one else was really helping us and we were getting really sick, so this is actually a lifesaver for us,” says Stevens.
 
Until recently, the 61-year-old grandmother lived in a Canmore motel with her four grown daughters, their husbands, and seven grandchildren aged three to 17. It’s been almost a year since the 2013 Alberta floods devastated Stevens’ split-level bungalow on the Stoney Nakoda Nation, but the family still has no idea when they will be allowed to go home. Mould and rot made their place unsafe and was making them ill. By January, Stevens was hospitalized for lung problems, and her grandchildren were also falling sick.
 
“It was winter, really cold, and we were staying off and on at my mother’s place, but that was pretty crowded. We kept trying to go home and clean up our house, but the mould and smell always came back. So we really needed something else. Without the Red Cross, I might not be here at all. It was pretty bad.”
 
Stevens normally works as a crisis counsellor at a women’s shelter, but after the floods everyone’s livelihoods were disrupted and Red Cross provided much of the family’s food and water. “Basically, the Red Cross is how we made it through summer and fall.”
 
Recently, the family was moved again, from the motel to a complex of temporary trailers on the Stoney Nation, while they wait for their house repairs. Red Cross is currently offering help with furnishings and household goods to people in this interim housing.
 
Daughter Cassandra says the family will always be grateful for the assistance.
 
“Before, we saw on TV how the Red Cross can help internationally with all sorts of disasters, but now we know personally how much they have helped us,” she said.

Read more about Red Cross relief and recovery efforts after the 2013 Alberta floods.