Flood damage to historic High River buildings surveyed

As residents of High River take stock of the devastation from last month’s flooding, it’s becoming clear that many of the town’s historic buildings were badly damaged.

• Heritage homeowners face flood cleanup challenges

Fraser Shaw, a heritage conservation advisor with the province, has been surveying the impact.

The childhood home of former Prime Minister Joe Clark — an historic house — suffered serious damage, he said.

"A lot of mud deposits and in this case, the cleanup process involved removing the residual standing water, pumping out the mud, clearing out the mud and gutting the non-historic interior finishes to allow full drying of that area," he said.

The original boiler, dating from 1909, cannot be salvaged.

The basement is in good shape though, after being painstakingly dried out, he said.

But outside the home, there are more serious problems, such as a crack running down the exterior brick wall.

Shaw still has about 50 more historic sites to inspect.

"We probably won't know the full extent of the impact for weeks or even months to come as the drying process progresses."

Shaw said he expects the Clark residence and other heritage sites to make a full recovery.