plenary The Calgary Stampede Aſter the Flood
For organizers of the 101st Calgary Stampede — the 10-day rodeo, exhibition, and festival held every July, which bills itself as “The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth” — the flood couldn’t have come at a worse time. Annually attracting up to one million visitors, the Stampede was set to open in two short weeks, on July 5. As much as 14 feet of floodwater had washed through the Stampede grounds and filled the first 10 rows of the lower seating bowls of the Scotiabank Sad- dledome, the city’s largest indoor arena, which sits in Stampede Park. Stampede organizers, however,
refused to let the flood wash away plans for the event. President and Chairman Bob Thompson told the Calgary Sun: “Throughout our entire history, we have never canceled a show despite two wars and a depression. We will be hosting the greatest outdoor show on earth, come hell or high water.” Last month, about midway through the Stampede, Convene spoke to Greg Newton, sales development manager for the not-for-profit Calgary Stampede. Here’s what he shared about how the organization was able to keep the Stam- pede afloat:
The Calgary Stampede in itself is some- what of its own city. So as much as we offer it as our own convention center on a year-round basis and then for our big event in July, we have all of our own trades — electricians — at a very large capacity. We have members on our team that are in the emergency response cen- ter for the entire city as well. So we knew the flood really was meant to crescendo around 6 a.m. on Friday, June 21. We knew on Thursday that it was coming. We did not know the extent it was going to be, and we were in emergency-preparation planning at that point. We had a sizable convention with us
that was wrapping up that day at 3 p.m., with all move-out and delegates out of the building by 5 p.m. So, it just fell
16 PCMA CONVENE AUGUST 2013
Impasse The floods washed away roads in and around Calgary.
‘The power of the water — to put it in perspective,’ Calgary Stampede’s Greg Newton said, ‘picked one of the bridges right up and pushed it right into another bridge. The volume was intense.’
at a really opportune time for us. And we didn’t have another event coming in until that Saturday. We were able to anticipate. We were able to get all our crews working on sandbagging and so forth, trying to protect our buildings as much as possible in advance of the actual flood hitting. Naturally, that is still a short window.
We were working on maybe a 12-hour notice. And I think the biggest thing, honestly, that saved us was having those skilled trades in the volume that we do that we were able to protect the sub- stations. Parts of our city were really affected because they lost power, and when you lose power with a flood, it takes so long to bring it up because you have to make sure everything is dry or you risk fire. We had trade [workers] that were tell-
ing us at that point they would have to be fired before they would leave their sub- station. So we had people going 20 hours straight just pumping water out, and it was their passion for the City of Calgary and the Stampede that kept all our power up at the Stampede Park — so when the water did start receding on Sunday, we were able to get in and not have to worry about having electricity. We had electric- ity — now it was just a cleanup. Depending where you were on park, we had up to 15 feet of water. We have 200 acres in Downtown Calgary.
Different areas were impacted. We have a number of bridges that cross the river on our park. The power of the water — to put it into perspective — picked one of the bridges right up and pushed it right into another bridge. So, the vol- ume was intense. Towards the back of our park we have barns, and the water was up to the roof of the barns. [Fortunately], we had no animals on park during the time of the flooding. We have two ranches that are outside of the city limits, … so we bring the animals in when we require them. They are not housed here on a year-round basis. And then competitor horses [for the Stam- pede] would not have been coming for another 10 days [at that point].
PULLING THE PLUG? Certainly there was a question [about whether the Stampede would be able to go on] as we watched the waters [rise] on Friday. What happened was it was meant to hit its high at about 6 a.m. We have two rivers that essentially meet not very far from where we are, and the one river that wraps around us really probably hit its peak somewhere around 6 a.m., but it was the other river that — when it hit its peak much later on Friday — started backing up with enough force to reverse the flow of the other river. And that is really the water that flooded all of Downtown Calgary.
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