Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 21, 1997, Winnipeg, Manitoba Brian Cole 6977044 readers forum saturday free press a 1 c june 1997 n in Kingston Crescent resident detailed return Home 50 flood notes relevant victims of the flood of the Century Are struggling now to put their lives and Homes Back they prob ably Are not thinking of gathering their thoughts about what it is like to return to Homes that not Only must be but must first be mucked at about this time in Gordon Steele was in much the same Frame of but a month in he sat Down and typed up his they Are As relevant today As they were 47 years Gordon Steele lived at 428 Kingston Crescent with his wife Dorothy and two Chil Roberta and until he died a year in after moving to he was his Story and photographs were supplied by his Dorothy who remarried and lives today in fort Garry with her husband putting on the hip you walk across a Bridge now open for resident foot traffic Only get into a Canoe and paddle to your some 400 neigh Bours less fortunate than yourself still have water Over their first but yours is one of the houses on higher ground in the water still Cov ers the ground but you can see a gravel and Sand bar athwart your front Lawn As you approach the another this time apparently of mud and lies across the sunken Garden at the you note with plea sure that your garage is still but a second glance tells you that your summer House has disappeared you distinctly remember mooring it to an adjacent tree with lengths of Garden an attempt to enter your Home by the front door is the Strong River current has loosened the mor tar in the Brick sided front door and the front door is swollen an attack on the Back door is More Suc once your initial reaction is to leave at the water has been up to the mantelpiece in the Gordon Steele living the stove and Washer have been submerged and look like nothing on your Oil tank in the basement became detached from its moorings and greatly aided the flood by spewing some of its contents into the Muddy i As the water Rose you had carried away everything you could think of to the second now you see that some of the venetian blinds were Down and the Stair car pet that you had hurriedly ripped up was not pulled Back High you could go on interminably listing Small but the Overall picture is one of All this time you have been sloshing through a three Inch layer of liquid mud covering the entire floor where the flood level caked deposits of mud sit on win Dow Sills and where to Start the windows have to be you pry and Force some the fresh rain provides a momentary Relief from the fetid odour that is generated from the filth and floodwaters still in your a brushes and shovels hastily water has not the first attack is on the layer of a liquid mass of mud is slowly cleared from the once highly polished hard Wood floors and then you wish you the Alchemy of the flood Waters has turned All the floors a Dull heaving and lifting the once level floor in numerous the floors must come they Are completely ruined and impede the clean ing pry bars come into a convenient open window accepts the torn up strips of Wood hundreds of the subfloor appears still masked in All the pervading you rip up a length of subfloor so that the base will flush the floor through to the the latter still filled to the brim with water and floating next the baseboards Are ripped off and the Sodden plaster and lathe still harbouring the River the newly painted Walls of the living room and dining room cast off their layer of paint at a a scraper peels of huge tattered sheets of paint up to and above the flood All door Sills and doors must be pressure is constantly upon you to the Kitchen warped out of All Are torn from their places and deposited Kitchen utensils immersed in a disinfecting solution Are placed in the human nature being what it you and your fellow Resi dents have formed a vigilance committee to protect your property and possessions from possible loot this is what you Are currently standing six hour vigilance at the Bridge or putting every minute possible into the cleanup trying to do Justice to your business and worrying about your evacuated fam and you Are one of the fortunate right next a widow is in England on a she rented her Beautiful Home to a Young although her Home has two appliances and debris sit outside the Steele Home in the tenants made absolutely no attempt to save your same cleanup process goes on next door but there is the a Sodden mass carpets and rugs strew the the dining room table lies Bro Ken and warped almost beyond recon All that stands firm is a pair of Duncan phyfe table legs that stand out in the across the Street a garage door stands open and the owners which was totally sits there appraisers have been in another the estimate to recondition his Home is yours parallels his at and you Are the fortunate ones because in both cases you were Able to carry most of your furnishings to the second it will be weeks before your Home is dried out enough to Start Basic and additional weeks before you can this is my Home and again you Are the fortunate ones your same experience is duplicated in thousands of but countless others face Complete and total you think of some Homes built right into Earth and Sand bags built up to the rooftop others totally just roof tops showing at the you think of the visit you made to the municipal where two elderly couples preceded theirs is the really sad fortunately a transient thanks to All of you across rehabilitation has the work of reconstruction is under the Sun shines and its Good to know what grand Neighbours canadians everywhere Are to you and the Crescent was evacuated on May canned in on May to get extra moved Back in september Portage and main is a column that features the views of free press read to Contact Gerald Stop repeat sex offenders letters to the editor this note was inspired by the two articles that were found on pages a4 and june the first article discusses the process of Public notification in conjunction with releasing sex and the Sec Ond tells a Story of a victim of the horrific details of the rape were also my question How on one Page can we read about the brutality of a Man and on the other read about How men like him Are reintroduced into main Stream society the thought sickens the horribly ironic part of the notification program of sex criminals is that police seem to have faster apprehension rates for the repeat offenders because the Community knows where they when will our penal system hear women rape is permanent rape not Only severely injures the victim mentally and it impairs All women abilities to live fear free most women i know curb their spatial behaviour to open and Safe leaving the vacant treed Parks and hidden walks for when we Are accompanied by oth at women Are even More con when will we have Laws that reflect the damage that is perpetrated against women every Day when will the men who perpetrate crimes against women lose More than just their jobs Al a speaker of Ontario reiterating Penni Mitchells Statis tics that sex offenders in Canada get lenient with Only 13 per cent of men who sexually abuse Chil Dren receiving prison terms longer than two years the Hole in my Stom Ach just gets Ashford Vancouver programs help Squeegee kids i am writing regarding Gordon sin Clairs column on Squeegee kids free june Sinclair closes his column with the the squeaky Squeegee gets the i would suggest rather that these it is the negative Side of the Story that gets the Sinclair makes reference to pro Grams in both Montreal and Toronto that Are assisting Squeegee kids to get Job training or Access social Over the last number of such How to reach us the free press welcomes letters from letters must be signed and should include a clearly printed address and Telephone names will be published but not All letters May be edited for style and Short letters Are less Likely to be please address letters to letters to the Winnipeg free 1355 Mountain Winnipeg r2x letters can be sent to our fax number letters May be submitted through the internet at . Letters sent via the internet obviously cannot be but must include Home address and Telephone Aid has existed in Winnipeg through programs such As the now defunct and agencies such As Macdon Ald youth it is the Combina Tion of shrinking funding for these programs and Media such As that focus on the Disen franchised youth and not alternatives that exist to assist that Perpetu ate and exaggerate the negative stereotypes such As terminus scares a term he used in his col i would suggest that with some research and discussions with the social service agencies providing out reach to kids on the Sinclair not to mention other Media outlets would discover the other Side of this they could then report on the number of people who have been assisted in accessing Basic necessities such As health care and food not to mention Job placement pro and reentry upgrading of their educational the Osborne Village Biz supports the work of Macdonald youth ser recognizing that our responsibility As a business Community includes participating with programs that improve the Standard of living within the Community on All i would suggest that if the Media spent As much Energy on the overextended social service agencies that Are working to help the Disen franchised reconnect with mainstream society As they do on exploiting the Squeegee kids and panhandlers As a so called blight on the Public would have a better understanding of there Are programs to help so called Squeegee kids with social services and Job both sides of the Kenny Boyce Osborne Village Biz Winnipeg school Board ignores parents last the Transcona Spring Field school Board once again voted against allowing a Middle years pro Gram at Anola the school currently houses grades k to after Grade our children get bused to Springfield Junior High in the problem is that the Junior High is overcrowded and that the Rural areas continue to this problem was identified years ago with various committees working at gathering information and making recommendations to the Board since the recommendations included hav ing a Middle years program added at there is room at Anola to Start the program this portables added on classrooms could be added in the a Survey of parents of Grade 6 Stu dents found 86 per cent want their Chil Dren to remain Here and understand there would be no frills with this years they say there will be a Cost saving in terms of transport the savings could be applied to any added costs to the and still the Board votes Why the meeting was open to the Public and Many Anola parents attended to show our the meeting was discussion was not questions one apiece Are Only allowed at the end of the after the is this a democracy or a dictatorship the Board has nine people who More than half Are from City the dynamics of the meeting was obviously City was this a political decision what about the children Diane Offiler Anola doonesbury by Garry Trudeau i7istoo sowjo0e7mwn3 a00ujhfr ;