READY, SET, GRAD! Red Deer’s Class of 2012
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CENTRAL ALBERTA’S DAILY NEWSPAPER
BREAKING NEWS ONLINE AT WWW.REDDEERADVOCATE.COM
WEDNESDAY, JULY 4, 2012
STRANDED BY THE STORM A motorist awaits help from a tow truck after getting stuck in flash flood waters beneath the 60th Street underpass Tuesday. He didn’t have to wait long after a group of Good Samaritans pulled him out. Please see related video at www. reddeeradvocate.com. Photo by RANDY FIEDLER/ Advocate staff
Severe storm swamps city about 2 p.m. and then began to escalate into a rage so that an hour later, it was in full force. Similar heavy downpours were realized in several other Central Alberta communities, including Olds, Rocky Mountain House and Stettler, plus a small tornado was reported west of Didsbury. Drains could not keep up with the quick downpour across many locations
BY LAURA TESTER ADVOCATE STAFF A torrential downpour stormed through Central Alberta on Tuesday, quickly flooding numerous parking lots, streets and businesses in Red Deer within an hour. The severe thunderstorm started at
in Red Deer. A couple of vehicles were observed floating at 51st Avenue and 47th Street. A City of Red Deer Environmental Services vacuum truck responded to that scene to clean up the excess. Environmental Services manager Tom Warder said the city received about 14 calls from the intense storm. “There were some reports of flood-
ing in downtown businesses and if there are any blockages, our guys will address them,” said Warder late Tuesday afternoon. Some businesses had to temporarily shut down because of flooding, including Real Canadian Superstore in the downtown.
Please see STORM on Page A2
Fishermen said lucky to be alive in rescue BY SUSAN ZIELINSKI ADVOCATE STAFF
Photo by JESSICA JONES/Advocate staff
A gooey mix of oil and sand are held back by a floating boom.
Big cleanup still left BY JESSICA JONES ADVOCATE STAFF ON THE RED DEER RIVER — Despite almost a month of cleanup efforts, significant oil deposits still blanket channels and tributaries after a pipeline ruptured underneath the Red Deer River. “The more we work, the more we find,” said a worker who was mopping up oil by hand with an absorbent pad along the Red Deer River shoreline on Tuesday. The task is proving difficult as the river has receded about one and a half metres since the spill. A line of residual oil can still be seen in the backwaters, marking how high the river was at the time of the spill. Mountain View County councillor Paddy Munro took the Advocate for a river tour on Tuesday between the Garrington Bridge and upstream to the spill site north of Sundre.
PLEASE RECYCLE
Numerous workers were seen cleaning up the mess. On June 7, up to 3,000 barrels (475,000 litres) of light sour crude oil was released into the Red Deer River from a ruptured Plains Midstream pipeline about one km north of Sundre. “The issue is that it (the oil) is way back in the channels,” Munro said. “I think they have identified 30 or 40 sites where it is like that.” An odour can still be detected along the channels and tributaries where mini booms have been set up. A swath of oil is still collecting at the booms near the original spill site north of Sundre. Peat moss has been spread over some of the oil deposits along the channels. “My concern is that the oil is spread out all over the flood plain so it’s going to be extremely difficult to get it all cleaned up,” Munro said. “When you go down the main river, you only really see the oil if there
WEATHER
INDEX
Showers
Four sections Alberta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A3 Business. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C3,C4 Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A5,A6 Classified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D1-D6 Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C6 Entertainment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C5 Sports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B4-B6
FORECAST ON A2
is a high bank but the oil has spread over huge areas. “Can they even clean it all up? I’m not sure if they can.” Plains reports that 317 cleanup personnel are working at nine locations and continue to monitor booms, cut and bag vegetation and remove woody debris. “One of my big concerns is that we have to get our regulator, the ERCB (Energy Resources Conservation Board) to actually start functioning as a regulator,” Munro said. “They have to be tough enough to enforce the regulations and when you have pipe that is 46 years old, you really need to monitor it.” Cleanup efforts, along with any mention of the oil spill, has been removed from the www.plainsmidstream.com main page. Instead, residents are encouraged to visit a separate website, www.plainsresponds. com, for information updates. jjones@reddeeradvocate.com
Two Red Deer fishermen whose jet boat quit and capsized on Thursday spent about 30 hours waiting for help on the banks of the Taku River in northern British Columbia. “A couple of lucky boys,” said Jamie Tait, a helicopter pilot from Atlin, B.C., who found the pair after their boat was spotted by Yukon bush pilot Jim Brooks. The fishermen, who did not want to be identified, were meeting up with their group of sport fishermen who have regularly fished in the area for years. Tait said they told him their boat, flipped on the remote river almost instantly after the motor quit in a spot where the river flowed into a rock and rolled back on itself. The men, who Tait estimated to be in their mid-50s, were forced to swim to shore. They were separated in the water and reached the shore about 1.5 km apart. “Neither one knew the other was alive,” said the helicopter pilot with Ascent Helicopters. One went into the water wearing chest waders. Tait said the fisherman wasn’t sure he was going to make it. “The ice chest went by and he was able to grab onto that and use it for flotation.” Each spent the night in the rain, stranded in a windy area. After many years flying fixed-wings, it was the first time Tait has been involved in a helicopter rescue. While manoeuvring his helicopter down the river, he found a life-jacket stuck on a branch along in the trees. “When I found the life-jacket, one of the guys came out of the bush. There he was.”
Please see RESCUE on Page A2
CANADA
SPORTS
MP BEV ODA RESIGNS
BLUE JAYS WIN
International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda resigned Tuesday, giving Prime Minister Stephen Harper the space he needs for a cabinet shuffle this summer. A5
Adam Lind hit a three-run homer and lefthander Brett Cecil pitched six strong innings as the Toronto Blue Jays defeated the Kansas City Royals 6-3 on Tuesday. B4