Here is a catalogue of photos shot before during and after the flood of the Little Red Deer River this June, 2005. It begins with views of the river at the Big Prairie Bridge, 2 and a half miles south of the house. You could hear the roar from the front steps.

BEFORE April 23 2005

DURING June 18, 2005 near crest

June 21, 2005

Falling June 19, 2005

closeup

June 21 - a summer house got pulled out of the trees and destroyed. Compare this with the first photo of the sequence - the river now goes straight through and has created an island in the bend.

April 21, 2005 downstream

June 18, 2005 near crest

June 19, 2005

This little house was someone's summer cottage once hidden in the woods. The water found it, yanked it off the foundation and tried to crush it.

As you can see the bridge (left) is normally a good 12 feet above the water. The water (above) ran over the road on the, lower, south side. An idiot tried to get through and stranded his truck

On the 18th the river flowed thrugh the south side forest!!

It had calmed down by the 21st, but it was still flowing through the forest!

This is what the river did to the south side of the bridge, see above photo. The truck had been towed further up the road.

AND NOW ON TO THE BURNT TIMBER BRIDGE!!!

(left) Burnt Timber Bridge in April 2005 , then below is the shot from June 19th 2005, notice that only the top few stones on the bank are showing and that was after it had crested and fallen by 3 or 4 feet already!

A once beautiful corner, now a raging torrent .... Little Red Deer River looking upstream from the Burnt Timber Bridge

This is the way the river looked today, June 24th. Compare this with the above montage of pictures. Notice the totally eroded high bank on the left. At its highest none of the grey rip rap rock could be seen on the left. Also the curved tree on the right is again attached to terra firma.

				The Little Red looking downstream from on the Burnt Timber bridge
		The changes are amazing -- across the river the rock strata are clearly visible now. On the right you can see the high water mark, the line of flotsam and straw above the grey rocks. Trees on the corner were downed and sent downstream and those remaining now lean out over the water. The once gentle bank on the right is now a verticle drop of 6 feet!