This time of year always hits home for Foothills residents as it marks another year since the 2013 floods.

The floods ravaged many communities in the Foothills and Calgary and resulted in many losing their homes.

Okotoks Fire Chief, Ken Thevenot, says while they did have systems in place at the time of the flood, it gave them a different lens to look through as they moved forward.

"People talk about lessons learned and we've often talked at some of our sessions that they're not lessons learned unless you've actually implemented new changes and we have here in Okotoks. We've increased our equipment, our training, our systems that we do have in place now have improved in those five years, we've definitely moved up on the ladder with emergency preparedness."

He says how they work with others has also been key.

"I think that area has really improved as well over the last number of years, building relationships not only with the provincial government but different stakeholders in our area. We now can call them up and say "can you help us out with this", maybe they can call us and ask for help as well."

Thevenot reflects on the day five years ago saying he remembers getting called by the provincial government at 2:45 in the morning, alerting him the town was under a high stream flow advisory and facing a significant weather system that could put them in danger.

Recently the Town was given $80,500 by the province for flood readiness.

 

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