After posting Thursday night’s blog, I went back down to the golf course around 8 p.m. and the water was coming up, but it didn’t seem too bad.
We looked around. It kept coming, so we went downstairs and moved things up higher, thinking the water wouldn’t go higher than where we had it. I left around 11 and, at that point, the water was kind of coming into the parking lot.
When I came in Friday morning around 4:45 a.m., I thought, `What happened here?’
By that point, we had six to seven feet of water in the basement, so there was nothing we could do there.
We were without internet, so we tried to get communications up. We moved things and sandbagged the new putting green. We tried to sandbag the third green, but it was too risky. At the end of the day, lives are lives.
I’ve never been more proud of a group of people before. The staff is so committed to this place that it’s overwhelming, They love making sure it’s looked after and that was very evident on Friday.
As far as the holes affected goes,, we’re looking at eight and nine. I am concerned with erosion along the left hand side of eight and that’s because we’ve got some wonderful, big trees there and the river is running so strong right now.
It hasn’t touched seven yet. It has touched three-quarters of four. Three is totally underwater and 18, three-quarters of 17, half of one and 10, but those new greens are safe. The only new green that we’re worried about is three and the putting green.
We’ve got holes in jeopardy and we’ve got a lot of clean-up, but some of my fellow professionals have it a lot worse. I’ve heard a lot of them are having a hard time, but I’ve been out of touch. Those are just some of the things I’ve heard.
I can’t get into the clubhouse. We’ll get a good idea of what the levels are, but the problem is that it’s still pouring rain as I write this and it’s pouring in the foothills.
At the end of the day, there are people getting airlifted from their rooftops, helicopters are flying around and thousands of people cant’t get to their homes. We’ve got a great group of people to help, whether it’s staff members or other professionals.
Golf will come back.
The important thing is that I’ve got family in High River and other places and when we do a head count, they’re still all there. That’s all that matters.
You just never think that it will happen in your own back yard.
