Re: the June 26 Advocate story, Local firms helping clean up Calgary
I was in the Sunnyside neighbourhood in Calgary when the Rusch Equipment Inc. boys showed up.
We had been pumping for nearly 36 hours on 5th Street and 7th Avenue and everyone was exhausted.
We had basically been on our own as the city didn’t want anyone back in their houses and so the residents banded together with a rag-tag collection of pumps to try to save their properties.
I was directing traffic because we had a ton of vehicles coming down to volunteer or to have a look.
I remember looking up and seeing a convoy coming down the street with enormous pumps and trailers full of eight-inch hose.
I’ll never forget what they said. “We’re here to help.”
It was like the cavalry riding into town. We were alone no more.
We had 5th Street under control but the next two streets (4A and Sunnyhill Lane) were still under water and making no progress.
A couple of the local residents jumped on board the Rusch trucks and took them to where they needed to deploy.
What a crew — they set up shop and started pumping water for two blocks and back into the river.
These guys worked for at least 36 hours straight.
We were running a Crisis Cafe with lots of food and drinks for the volunteers, and these guys did not take a break. They just got ’er done.
I’d really like these guys to know what a tremendous lift they gave to the whole community. We suddenly saw the light at the end of the tunnel.
They moved on with no stopping so we never even got to say thanks. We had the mayor over the other night and he had heard about these guys and we filled him in on the details.
There are hundreds of folks in this neighbourhood who will be able to salvage their homes because of the work this Red Deer company did.
These guys were heroes! Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Stuart Quinn
Calgary