RESTORING A COMMUNITY OF ART
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DE GRASSE WINS GOLD
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Red Deer Advocate THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2015
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Storm rips through Central Alberta TUESDAY STORM BROUGHT HEAVY RAIN, HAIL, WINDS TO CENTRAL ALBERTA BY SUSAN ZIELINSKI ADVOCATE STAFF Hail the size of golf balls and larger smashed windshields, stripped leaves off trees and even tore off bark in some areas of Central Alberta on Tuesday night. Environment Canada received reports of hail slightly larger than golf balls in the Red Deer’s north end and Lacombe. Hail reached the size of golf balls in Clive. Sylvan Lake saw some loonie-sized hail. Toonie-sized hail struck Donalda, and in Leslieville it was nickel-sized. Carrie Berg of Red Deer just finished the 13th hole on River Bend Golf Course shortly before she saw hail coming her way. It looked like a wall of white. “The sound was like a cross between a really, really strong wind and a locomotive. It was so loud. And all of a sudden it just started coming down,” Berg said on Wednesday. Her group ran to a nearby shelter but not before she got nailed by the big, hard hail. “It was like someone throwing stuff at you. I have a bruise on my shoulder where I was hit. It was crazy. And my husband’s car, the back windshield was shattered and there are dents.” While waiting out the storm, they saw a young moose on the run. “It looked very frantic, just running down the fairway in the hail and rain,” Berg said. Thalia Hibbs of Lacombe was at Gull Lake when hail struck. She returned home to find the front windshield of her vehicle, which was parked in front of her house, smashed and cracked. “I can’t drive it right now because of the windshield,” Hibbs said. “When I drove through town, there was definitely a lot of busted up vehicles. There were some even with the rear windshield gone, smashed right out.” A small window on her home was also damaged by hail. Coincidently, final repairs were just completed on a broken window from a previous hail storm, she said. Lacombe Mayor Steve Christie said he heard of hail damage to siding, roofs, windows, windshields and skylights. “We have some vehicles damaged in our fleet. I haven’t heard of any windows being taken out in
Photo by SCOTTY AITKEN/freelance
A storm with heavy rains, wind, and hail on Tuesday night left Main Street in Rimbey flooded for about a half hour. municipal buildings. We didn’t get a huge amount of rain with it. Our storm systems were able to keep up,” Christie said. He said because of severe storms in recent years, residents are quick to help out by clearing branches and leaves knocked off trees that plug storm drains. “As I made my rounds last night after the storm had gone by, people were out cleaning those storm drains. Kudos to them.” City staff also worked late. Christie was playing at Lacombe Golf and Country
Club when the hail came and he had to seek shelter. “It was pretty crazy. They were in between golf ball and tennis-ball size for the most part. That lasted for quite some time, then it went down to pea size and then some rain,” Christie said. “I know a few buddies were bruised up a little bit.” The City of Red Deer only reported a few broken branches from the storm.
Please see STORM on Page A2
Harm reduction in the battle against addiction Every month in Red Deer, the Central Alberta AIDS Network Society gives away an average of 38,000 new needles to individuals who are mostly using drugs that are not prescribed. It raises that bigger question we don’t hear very often, perhaps because the helping agencies are just too busy doing the front line work: Why doesn’t this city have a residential addictions treatment program? Some of the drugs that people across this region are injecting themselves with inMARY-ANN clude crack cocaine, crystal BARR methamphetamine and opiate derivatives like heroin. The region encompasses the same expansive area as Alberta Health Services’ Central Zone — running west to Rocky Mountain House, east to Provost, north to Lamont and south to Drumheller. Red Deer, the largest community in it, is the centre of free needle distribution by CAANS to help prevent deaths and the spread of HIV and hepatitis C. Sharing needles will cause these things to happen. The distribution of free and new needles also saves a lot of money. Research shows that while one needle
BARRSIDE
WEATHER Cloudy. High 23. Low 9.
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INDEX Four sections Alberta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A3 Business. . . . . . . . . . . . . C5,C6 Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A5 Classified . . . . . . . . . . . . D1-D3 Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D5 Entertainment . . . . . . . . C3,C4 Sports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B1-B3
costs 11 cents, one HIV infection costs $1.3 million. Of course, harm reduction delivery and other associated costs are more than just one needle, but reducing HIV infection does save a great deal of money. CAANS, which receives $191,000 in harm reduction funding from Alberta Health and the AHS Central Zone, is able to connect in a non-judgmental way with people using drugs, and at least help them to understand safe drug use, and proper disposal of needles and other drug debris, as it’s called. In April 2011, CAANS gave out 10,385 new needles to people. By March 2015, the number was 37,715. As part of its harm reduction program, CAANS collects used needles, which are then disposed of by a contractor through incineration. Executive director Jennifer Vanderschaeghe says they are seeing a 75 per cent return rate of the 354,000 needles they give out in a year. Any return rate over 50 per cent is considered good. In the last fiscal year (April 1, 2014, to March 31, 2015), they saw 283,292 used needles returned. Of these, 211,058 came back to the CAANS office by way of sharps containers, for example; 45,981 from harm reduction satellite sites; 14,575 from the NightReach program; 31,741 from other organizations in Central Alberta; 5,140 from the drug debris drop boxes in Red Deer; 2,027 from drug debris cleanups; and 118 from homeless camps. Very few if any of the needles being returned have to do with diabetics using CAANS sharps containers
or drop boxes, and only a small amount would be tied to steroid use. I don’t live under a rock but I have to admit I find the number of needles being given out astonishing. There’s a side of life in Red Deer, and many other communities, most of us never see, never know — the complex issue of drug addiction. Safe Harbour, another charitable agency in Red Deer, runs a short-term non-medical detox program to help people withdraw from substances and prepare them for more long-term treatment. A private addiction treatment centre is located at Tees. “We are focused on people who are using drugs that haven’t been medically prescribed or are not being medically prescribed to take in that route. So people who are injecting drugs, or smoking crack or crystal meth, and so on,” Vanderschaeghe said. She agrees the number of needles being distributed is increasing but that doesn’t necessarily mean drug use is on a sharp increase in this community. Vanderschaeghe said that a few years ago they believed they had about 300 clients who were using needles. However, data collection has improved and now the number is more accurate and closer to 400, a fairly stable number the past few years. It could also be that CAANS is getting its message across better.
Please see DRUGS on Page A2
Clark worries raging wildfires are new norm B.C. premier blames recent forest fires on global warming and thinks the massive blazes might become commonplace. Story on PAGE A5
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