Thursday 11 July 2013

Canvassing

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I spent the day in High River today. The province asked the church if they would canvas every house. They were concerned that there may be people who have been missed and may need help. It was quite an experience. Right off the bat, the first doors we knocked on, we talked with people whose eyes would quickly fill with tears. They were just so exhausted, overwhelmed, and grateful to have someone checking on them. It was quite humbling. We shared plenty of tears and plenty of hugs.

One of the houses we went to early in the day had this wedding dress hanging on their fence:

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So heartbreaking.

You can see on these fences how high the water was:

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By the end of the day I was totally exhausted physically and emotionally. There is a pervasive poo smell in High River. The mess left to clean up is absolutely overwhelming. We found a few people who definitely need help. Some didn't realize that they needed to take out their drywall. One lady hadn't done anything - she was waiting for her insurance company to respond. We let her know she must take action and her insurance policy will end up being void if she doesn't. Some houses had  clearly been abandoned and still had stuff tossed everywhere in the basement, and mud that was at least knee deep.

I'm so grateful to be able to help in some way.

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