“The River is Not the Same Anymore": Environmental Risk and Uncertainty in the Aftermath of the High River, Alberta Flood

Abstract

Even when individuals are aware of and well educated about environmental issues like climate change they often take little action to mitigate these problems. Yet catastrophic events, like disasters, have the potential to rupture or disrupt complacency toward environmental problems, forcing individuals to consider the potential effects of human activity on the environment as they expose how environmentally harmful practices put people at risk. This article is based on focus group interviews with 46 residents of High River, Alberta, a rural community hardest hit by the 2013 Southern Alberta flood. It examines if and how experiencing the flood prompted residents to think about the environment or interact with it in new ways. Findings suggest that residents voice a contradiction- while they believe that pre-flood human activity like deforestation, river diversion, and home-building altered the environment and placed communities like their own at risk, they also argue that natural forces like disasters are immune to human efforts to control them. Residents feel their environment is less stable and predicable since the flood, and they worry more about toxicity and associated environmental health risks. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for environmental sociology and public policy.

Flooding and the ‘new normal’: what is the role of gender in experiences of post‐disaster ontological security?

“…Caleb's comment is consistent with the finding of Haney and McDonald‐Harker (2017) that flood‐affected residents report fundamentally different relationships with their natural surroundings after a disaster. It also suggests that for those who interact with nature, the disruption to landmarks, such as the park, and familiar routines, such as outdoor recreation activities, are indissolubly intertwined; both were disrupted in Calgary in the wake of the flood.…”

“…Others mentioned the closing of parks and schools and the loss of small locally‐owned businesses as being particularly upsetting. Finally, one participant noted that the Bow River itself had changed, with ‘sandbars in new places’, and with it appearing either wider or narrower at various points, a finding consistent with the work of Haney and McDonald‐Harker (2017) on how a flood changes local perceptions of a body of water.…”

“…Connell (1995, p. 178) asserts that men's views and practices exhibit an observable durability, or, in other words, ‘among men there is a clear resistance to change’. Milnes and Haney (2017) tested this durability, studying the flood‐affected residents of a large Canadian city. They determined that women were twice as likely as men to report post‐flood changes in their environmental views.…”

Does compassion go viral? Social media, caring, and the Fort McMurray wildfire

“…In recent years, Alberta has become Canada's disaster capital. In fact, three of the five costliest disasters in Canadian history (2011 Slave Lake fire, 2013 Southern Alberta Flood, 2016 Fort McMurray Fire) have all occurred in Albertaand all within the last six years (Haney & McDonald-Harker, 2017). If catastrophe continues to befall Albertans, the networks of care and support forged during these recent events could provide a stable foundation to help and support those affected by Alberta's future disasters.…”

Flood risk management and shared responsibility: Exploring Canadian public attitudes and expectations

“…These measures include, for example, moving heating and cooling equipment to upper floors, installing flood barriers on windows, doors and vents, and installing sandbags (Kovacs & Sandink, ; Sandink, ). The literature shows that there has generally been poor uptake of PLFP measures in existing homes in many jurisdictions, with common reasons including underestimation of flood risks, lack of personal responsibility, and perceived high costs (Haney & McDonald‐Harker, ; Sandink, ).…”