Downtown Calgary evacuated due to flood
CALGARY, Alberta – Flooding forced the western Canadian city of Calgary to order the evacuation of its entire downtown Friday, as the waters reached the 10th row of the city’s hockey arena.
Overflowing rivers washed out roads and bridges, soaked homes and turned streets into dirt-brown waterways around southern Alberta. Police say as many as four people might have died.
About 350,000 people work in downtown Calgary on a typical day. However, officials said very few people need to be moved out, because many heeded warnings and did not go to work Friday.
Twenty-five neighborhoods in the city, with an estimated population of 75,000, have already been evacuated because floodwaters in Calgary, a city of more than a million people that hosted the 1988 Winter Olympics and serves as the center of Canada’s oil industry.
Outside the city, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said two men were seen floating lifeless in the Highwood River near the hard-hit community of High River on Thursday, but no bodies have been found. They also say a woman who was swept away with her camper has not been found. And it wasn’t clear whether a man who was seen falling out of a canoe in the High River area was able to climb back in.
Brazil’s president silent about violent protests
BRASILIA, Brazil – More than a week of massive, violent protests across Brazil invited only stoic silence Friday from President Dilma Rousseff, even after she had called an emergency meeting with a top Cabinet member in response to the growing unrest.
Only on Friday night did the government confirm that Rousseff would address the nation a few hours later, but through a prerecorded message. She was expected to meet in the evening with top bishops from the Roman Catholic Church about the protests’ effects on a papal visit still scheduled for next month in Rio and São Paulo state.
Trying to decipher the president’s reaction to the unrest has become a national guessing game, especially after some 1 million anti-government demonstrators took to the streets the night before across the country to denounce everything from poor public services to the billions of dollars spent preparing for next year’s World Cup soccer tournament and the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.
The protests continued Friday, as about 1,000 people marched in western Rio de Janeiro city, with some invading an enormous $250 million arts center that remains empty after several years of work. Police tried to disperse the crowd with tear gas, as helicopters buzzed overhead.
Other protests broke out in the country’s biggest city, São Paulo, and the northeastern Brazilian city of Fortaleza, and demonstrators were calling for mobilizations in 10 cities on today.
Associated Press
