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Oilfield company helps with cleanup in Calgary neighbourhood

Jun 25, 2013 | 7:24 AM

Calgary’s Sunnyside neighbourhood is on the road to recovery, and it’s getting there with an assist from an oilfield company out of Red Deer.

The community located just across the river, to the north of the downtown core, got hit hard when flood waters poured in last week.

When 4A Street NW was underwater, with residents evacuated, Sean Wilson was among them.

“I work actually just overlooking the park and I looked out my window and was like, ‘Man, that’s a lot of water.' Then I got a call from a co-worker saying, 'Did you hear your neighbourhood’s been evacuated?'” he said.

Wilson headed home where police told him he needed to be out of his house by 7 p.m.

“You never grab all the stuff you want,” he said.

Wilson’s street would likely have remained impassable with water on Monday if it weren’t for outside intervention. Neighbours had rented pumps and were trying to clear the street to no avail on Sunday, as the drainage system was simply too backed-up, and the pumps were too weak.

But the situation turned around when workers from Rusch Equipment arrived on the scene out of Red Deer, Alta.

“It was like a military convoy coming up the street,” said Wilson as he described the arrival of the workers, who came with four industrial-sized pumps in tow.

The workers ran the pumps, capable of moving as much as 7,000 litres per minute, all through Sunday night and into Monday, finally getting the street clear enough of water for vehicles to get in.

“I was watching (the flooding) on the news, and hoping we could get down here and give people some stress relief,” said Bill Bishop as he adjusted a hose leading off one of the pumps.

Residents throughout the neighbourhood said they were grateful for the help as they carried on with the clean-up.

The neighbourhood remained without sewer service on Monday, and city workers were going door-to-door assessing the condition of homes to determine if they were safe to occupy.

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