Vendors at the Calgary Farmers' Market pitched in to mop up the mess from a water main break on Wednesday and were back in business on Thursday morning.
Emergency crews were called to the building in the 500 block of 77 Avenue S.E. just before 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday after receiving reports of flooding.
Officials say water was shooting out the front door and was ankle deep near some of the vendor stalls. The water nearly reached the electrical panels in the maintenance area before it was shut off.
The building wasn’t compromised by the flood but vendors and building managers were on site all night cleaning up the mess.
“We estimate approximately 40 vendors are seeing a disruption or damage to their booths or product or systems, like their refrigeration units. So right now, you can see there is a lot of vendors here, lots of shop vacs going, lots of squeegeeing to get all the water out so that we can dry out,” said Leilani Olynik with the Calgary Farmers’ Market. “This community has always been behind us and I don’t feel that this is going to be any different. We’re lucky that it’s just a few inches of water in just a bit of the market, not anything really catastrophic. That’s the silver lining.”
A temporary water supply was established so the market could open for business as usual at 9:00 a.m.
Officials have not yet determined what caused the water main to break.
