Mayor: Calgarians need to be prepared for possible flooding
Posted Apr 9, 2014 5:08 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Nearly a year later and the city is still talking flood.
At a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Mayor Naheed Nenshi said Calgary is one of the few cities in Canada not wholeheartedly welcoming spring this year.
He said we can’t control Mother Nature, but Calgary can control how it responds to what she throws at us.
The mayor also urged Calgarians to be pro-active.
“Look at your own home and figure out what mitigation measures might make sense,” he said. “Make sure you move any irreplaceable items from the lower levels of your home to the higher levels. Just do that now.”
Crews are busy working to install river sensors and add more cameras along the Bow and Elbow Rivers to monitor water levels, while automated gates have been installed in Sunnyside to better manage flood waters.
As well, Nenshi announced a new website will be up and running Monday to keep people informed about flood mitigation.
The Director of Water Services in Calgary said they have identified six critical sites along river banks that need to be repaired and four have been fixed so far.
From all indications, if there is any flooding, it would most likely happen between May 15th and July 15th.
Nenshi adds they’re not too worried about melting snowpack, the big concern is rain: a torrential downpour in the mountains and Foothills triggered last June’s catastrophic flood.
