Not sure how "prepared" anyone is .....when something this unusal happens. (not saying they shouldn' t be......at least in basics) Been flooded a couple of times in the past four years......and no matter how prepared one thinks he is.....there is always so much unexpected that happens. This is not the "norm" in Calgary and nor was it the "norm" here. These are rather extraordinary situations. Have friends in Calgary and the stress level is quite high there now.
All they had to do was phone...flooding isn't unusual for some of us. I can understand the first one catching them by surprise, but we knew this latest one was coming since last week. It was on the news here. We have plenty of experts in Manitoba because somebody gets flooded here almost every year. They could have called some places on the east coast too.
It isn't the unexpected happening...that's understandable the first time, but not the second. It also isn't the stuff you can't do anything about, like that town that had it's main street turn into a river in less time than it takes to drink a beer. What I mean is the little things like not having sandbags, not weighing down the sewer lids when you know a flood is coming, and that sort of thing. It's official complacency and it costs millions when something like this happens.
A non-Alberta example...When we had the big flood here a few years ago we discovered that people had built sheds, garages, and even houses on, or on the wrong side of, the berms and dikes along the Red River. Worse yet, some bozos had even cut out those berms and dams because it interfered with their view or whatever. All of that was against the law, and there had to be official inspections, but nobody did anything about it.