The Town of High Riv­er expe­ri­enced one of Canada’s great­est nat­ur­al dis­as­ters in June of 2013. With lit­tle warn­ing the riv­er over­flowed its banks and raced across town destroy­ing busi­ness­es, homes, infra­struc­ture and lives. 

Ham radio oper­a­tors from the Foothills Ama­teur Radio Club and across the region respond­ed to the emergency. 

Work­ing close­ly with their town, area hos­pi­tals and emer­gency and sup­port ser­vices (includ­ing fire, emer­gency and social ser­vices) to aug­ment or replace com­mu­ni­ca­tions that had been dam­aged or destroyed in the torrent. 

This is an exam­ple of the Ama­teur Radio Emer­gency Ser­vices (ARES) at its finest. To hon­our the extra­or­di­nary efforts of these radio ama­teurs, the Foothills Ama­teur Radio Club arranged a cer­e­mo­ny and ban­quet for its mem­bers and those ama­teurs that came to assist. 

Their sto­ry is one of ser­vice and excep­tion­al­ism. These 59 hams deserve the recog­ni­tion that they received. 

All received a cer­tifi­cate thank­ing them for their self­less ser­vice dur­ing the South­ern Alber­ta flood, signed by Assis­tant Emer­gency Coor­di­na­tor (and Emer­gency Coor­di­na­tor at the time) Vince d’Eon VE6LK, Pres­i­dent, Radio Ama­teurs of Cana­da, Geoff Baw­den VE4BAW, and Emer­gency Coor­di­na­tor for the Cal­gary Region­al ARES Soci­ety, Ian Burgess VA6EMS.
 

Cer­tifi­cate: http://wp.rac.ca/alberta-floods-certificate/

For­mer May­or Emile Blok­land and Chief Len Zebedee, the two prin­ci­ple High Riv­er author­i­ties dur­ing the dis­as­ter, pre­sent­ed let­ters of recog­ni­tion and thanks from the Town of High Riv­er to vol­un­teers signed by the cur­rent May­or Craig Snodgrass. 

Mr Blok­land also pre­sent­ed a let­ter of thanks to the nation­al asso­ci­a­tion signed by May­or Craig Snod­grass. The let­ter in part states; “The Radio Ama­teurs of Cana­da … should be very proud and inspired by the Foothills Chap­ter and its mem­bers, in the wake of their actions and ser­vices to the com­mu­ni­ty … The degree to which our res­cue efforts, evac­u­a­tion and emer­gency oper­a­tions were affect­ed by the fail­ure of all com­mu­ni­ca­tion sys­tems was some­thing we nev­er expe­ri­enced before in any flood event. The quick response, expert tech­ni­cal knowl­edge of every mem­ber of the Foothills Ama­teur Radio Soci­ety demon­strat­ed can­not be dis­count­ed in the pos­i­tive effect they had on the town of High River’s quick and safe recov­ery from Canada’s worst nat­ur­al dis­as­ter.. A debt we can’t soon repay, but wish to acknowledge”. 

Let­ter: http://wp.rac.ca/high-river-ab-mayor-letter/

In his remarks RAC Pres­i­dent Geoff VE4BAW observed that “…these ama­teurs serve as bea­cons and exam­ples to hams all across Cana­da and I am proud to be invit­ed to this cer­e­mo­ny and rep­re­sent Cana­di­an hams. Many radio vol­un­teers had their homes flood­ed and some had fam­i­ly mem­bers miss­ing and despite per­son­al stress and fears they served others.” 

— Adapt­ed from a bul­letin of the Radio Ama­teurs of Cana­da.