Flooding devastation hard to grasp for some

The flooding in Thunder Bay has prompted the Red Cross to call the situation one of its largest disaster responses in Ontario in recent years, but some flood victims say there are people who just don't fully understand the devastation.

Canadian Red Cross volunteer Brenda McCarrell said she has seen a lot of disasters and says the situation in Thunder Bay is serious.

McCarrell said if people live in parts of Thunder Bay that weren't badly affected — or they just had a bit of water runoff at their own homes — they might not grasp how much devastation the flooding inflicted in the hard-hit areas.

"If they don't travel to that part of the city and actually see what is out there, like what people [have] to throw out," said McCarrell, who has been volunteering with the charitable organization for 15 years.

"[People don’t realize] the hardships that these people are going to be experiencing because of [the flooding], especially if they happen to live in a basement apartment or something — that's their whole home."

Many Thunder Bay residents have come forward to help flood victims, but for people like Confederation College student Shannon Murray, who has lost her furniture, laptop, school notes and clothes, "It's essentially like somebody stole everything that I owned."

Murray said she’s most upset about the sentimental items she lost as the flood overtook her basement apartment — like the bridesmaid dress she wore to her brother's wedding. Yet she said she believes some people in Thunder Bay don't fully understand the loss.

"I think there's people that live in other parts of the city that didn't get any of the damage that don't think it's a big deal," she said.

She's noticed that attitude online. 

"I'd see a lot of people on Facebook ... that were posting things [like] 'I just flushed my toilet.  What's up East End?' And stuff like that," she said. "I don't think they understand how bad people in the East End got it … there's people that were worse off than me, too."

 McCarrell, who has been heading up the relief effort in Thunder Bay, noted that people might not fully understand the impact of the disaster if they haven't seen the piles of destroyed belongings in victims' front yards. 

"A lot of memories are stored in people's homes and ... they can't recover those things."