Only by not living in the Calgary area! While we were having dinner in Soho, the Calgary area was deluged by several days of heavy rain. Several communities to the south were seriously flooded. They were reckoned to be 100 year floods but they occurred 10 years after another hundred year flood. One week after my return, we had a more serious rainfall resulting in what some are calling a 200 year event. Many houses on the floodplain in Calgary were flooded this time and the poor sods in the previously flooded communities were hit again. The ground was waterlogged from the first event and so water seeped into my basement which, thankfully, is not developed (all the houses here have basements and most develop them, putting in extra bedrooms etc.). I reckon I pumped out 1200-1500 gallons of water but there was no damage. Yesterday we were hit again and I had a minor flood in the basement this morning - but only about 500 gallons this time. The poor sods to the south got hit again. All rainfall records have been broken and the reservoir dam over-flowed during the first two events and that hadn't happened since it was built in 1930. I got off lightly. Some people in the neighbourhood had their sewers back up and flood their basements to a depth of 2 feet with you-know-what! I will be re-landscaping around the house to make sure that the rain water flows away from the house. Cheers Graham
