Oy! What a weekend....

I have pictures from the weekend, but they will have to wait. Crazy things have been happening in the lives of my friends and I need to share!!  I spent much of my weekend praying for these families and sending emails to anyone who would listen, on their behalf for interventions.

Tim and Erin Lyons, as well as the other families on the Cottonwood River,  need your support, your prayers, your good thoughts, your power of the paw. Tim and Erin are the owners of Eromit Labrador Retrievers and have an amazing breeding program with their gorgeous labs. My next furbaby, I hope, will come from them!  Anyway, they live in an acreage on the Cottonwood River, outside Quesnel, BC. It's been a bad year for snow, and Wednesday night, they experienced a flash flood which flooded the river, causing them to evacuate their home. Erin and Tim are wise; they knew early on in their ownership of their gorgeous home that the river was experiencing erosion and so they set up an evacuation plan so they and the dogs would be just fine. They swung into action and everyone- humans, dogs, horses and pigeons are safe! BUT, their home is in danger of falling into the river at this point. Their neighbours' home fell in this afternoon and it is sounding like they may not qualify for disaster relief funding at this point. SO, pray, cross paws, light candles, send positive thoughts, whatever you do in their direction! They are going to need it!! If Tim and Erin's home goes, 4 others will follow as the river changes course and erodes away the banks. It's heartbreaking because it was preventable, was a man-caused problem, due to logging, jamming up the river and never needed to go this far. So far, the government has been less than supportive in saving their homes, even though they are committed to saving the road, right behind their homes. :(  So, Erin and Tim and everyone else in their community need your support.

Here's some news clips from the last while...

The start of the chaos...  May 12th. This article includes a picture of Tim and Erin's flooded out acreage. So sad!!

Flood warning- May 14th. This was towards the start of the nightmare. It was the second warning issued.

Bob Simpson, MLA's information about the area.  He is supporting the families who are going to be homeless soon.

Quesnel home teeters-  May 16. According to the article, they were going to attempt to pull the home back from the river. Sadly, they didn't succeed, but rather ended up pushing the Allen home into the river. :(

Emergency crews called off- May 16. This article states that the crews were called off for safety reasons. NOT TRUE... it was because of money! BOO!  The Media is spinning this, at this point to save the government's butts.

The Allen Family loses everything.  So Sad!  Erin and Tim's neighbours lost everything- including their home.  The only good I have heard at this point is that MLA Bob Simpson is making sure they can stay together.

I could go on and on, but I feel so sad for Erin and Tim, losing their home. I also feel sad for them as they try to collect up all their stuff, which was dispersed to their neighbours' homes but is now being loaded into a semi to go to storage. Erin, I believe it coming back to Saskatchewan with her dogs, for the time being as her dad has a kennel here as well. Tim, I think will remain in BC to fight the government decisions and to start to rebuild.

It's been a rough week in Canada, that's for sure. The Saskatchewan/Manitoba (mainly Manitoba) floods, the Quebec floods, Slave Lake burning up in a forest fire (40% of the town is gone as of this morning), but it's the personal stories that break our hearts.