9 years since Calgary flood evacuations

It’s been almost a decade since southern Alberta was devastated by floods, and despite the immediate danger of rising waters being over, for now, city officials are putting out a reminder that Calgary is still in storm season.

Monday marks nine years since the federal government sent 2,200 troops to help with evacuations during the floods of 2013. The rising waters from the Bow and Elbow rivers killed five people, displaced over 100,000 people, and caused $6 billion in damages.

More recently, the amount of rain that Calgary was anticipating over the weekend didn’t transpire, and the state of local emergency has been lifted.

Crews have dismantled the temporary emergency berm that was set up along Memorial Drive to protect the community of Sunnyside from possible flood waters.

READ MORE:

• Calgary lifts State of Local Emergency for a possible flood

• Calgary’s flood mitigation efforts are more robust than ever

• Calgary firefighters responded to hundreds of outage calls during the hefty rain storm

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Calgary has made significant investments into flood mitigation and prevention since the devastation almost a decade ago, officials say, adding they’ve reduced flood risk by 55 per cent.

The Bow and Elbow rivers remain under a high streamflow advisory. Over 62 millimetres of rain fell in Calgary last week and there is still some wet weather on the way for the city.

CityNews Meteorologist Michael Kuss says there is rain in the forecast, but it won’t be as heavy as the deluge that prompted the flood scare just days ago.

“It is going to be an unsettled week, but it won’t be as wet as last week,” Kuss said. “There is a chance for thunderstorms the next two days and then the only really widespread wet day looks like Thursday.”

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