Happy Canada Day and Hay River strong!
As some of you are aware, my community was hit with four major disasters and evacuations in just less then two years.
First off, we had the worst flood in northern Canadian history. A series of fluke events converged to raise our river more than fifty feet straight UP. Horizontally it spread for miles in some spots, to areas that have never flooded. Over 400 houses destroyed or damaged in a community of around 4000 people.
We had a big propane explosion in a flood damaged area that destroyed or damaged more houses. We had two wildfire evacuations that emptied the town for about two months and destroyed more houses.
Hay River is on the ropes. Many people that left simply never returned. Businesses closed because of the financial hit after hit after hit.
A saying emerged; “Hay River Strong.”
Today we had our traditional Canada Day parade. Somewhere around twenty floats, which is about average. By big city standards it probably seems pretty hokey, but we love it and are very proud of it. But the cool thing was the turnout, pretty much everyone in the community came out to cheer and socialize. We live near the starting point, the big crowds start to the left heading towards downtown.
Hay River strong, indeed.