No. There’s really no need in most Lethbridge neighbourhoods, as the Oldman River, which flows through the city, is at the bottom of a valley that is 300 feet deep. It’s not like in Calgary, where the Bow River may be 20 feet or so below its banks. At any rate, local authorities here are mostly trying to keep people out of the river valley, rather than evacuating anybody. Valley parks and pathways are closed, and police are preventing anybody from entering (as best they can anyway–there are a number of non-standard ways to get into the parks, if somebody is really determined).
That being said, however, people in some parts of town do occasionally have sewer backups into their basements during heavy rainstorms, but if this is the case, the home generally also has a pump to handle the problem. Also, the storm sewer system can have a bit of trouble keeping up with heavy continuous rainfall; and of course, water pools in the underpasses that go under the train tracks and Highway 3. A bit of time, and the water drains away. If you like, you can see some photos from around town at this link.
ETA: Cat Whisperer, great photos! That one of the Louise Bridge tells me a lot about the river height–and it is frighteningly high!
Yeh, flood paddling has some nasty challenges that regular spring paddling does not have. I agree that it would not be wise to upset the authorities.
It’s sort of like storm chasing – you drive long distances calling in for water levels and tracking reports of floods and road closures to get to where the maximum flow is, all to have some extraordinary time in the rapids. My crew and I (then from eastern Ontario) used to make the trek to Idaho for it’s floods. Well worth the effort.
Pity Siamons International Inc. (a Toronto maker of mold control Concrobium) isn’t publicly traded – now would be a good time to buy. Given the scope of the damage, I expect that there will be folks waiting all summer long or more for restoration crews to be available.
Well, please spread the word to everyone you know to keep panic levels to a minimum.
We went to a local pub for supper and, sure enough, the waitress was under the impression that there was a boil water order in the city (which there isn’t). I corrected her and we did, indeed, receive a couple of crystal-clear glasses of water to go with our vittles.
The water treatment system we now have in Calgary is absolutely state-of-the-art, using a flocculation system that is both simple and ingenious. Suffice to say, when you see fresh water coming out of the primary settling tanks from the flocc tanks—where it goes from being as murky as the river water we’re currently seeing everywhere to clean as a whistle—it is pretty darn convincing. From there it receives a course of chemical treatment, followed by two stages of filtration to remove any residual stuff, and then off to the city pipes. So I have absolute confidence in the quality of the tap water we have in this city and will continue to have throughout this crisis.
The Glenmore Water Treatment Plant, originally constructed waaaaaaaay back in 1933, with expansions in 1956, 1966 and 2008, is on the top of a bluff overlooking the Glenmore Dam and the Glenmore Reservoir and well away from the Elbow River down below.
The Bearspaw Water Treatment Plant, originally built in the 1960s—and I’m much less familiar with it, so I won’t be providing a detailed expansion history—is much closer to the Bow River, but still quite a distance away across the flood plain and built very secure from flood potential. The Al Azhar Shriner’s Lodge, across the street from the Bearspaw plant, is at way more risk of being flooded out than the plant is.
It is mind-boggling, how high and fast the river is running right now. I responded to a tweet asking why we weren’t prepared for this; that’s like asking a city that never, ever gets snow why they weren’t prepared for a snowfall. This is a totally unprecedented level of flooding; we have the occasional spring flood issue, but never anything like this.
You can donate to the Red Cross to help out with the Alberta floods. (I hope it’s okay for me to post the link here.)
Though I’m a bit puzzled. I hope this doesn’t sound bad, and I don’t mean to trivialize the floods or hate on Alberta or anything, but… isn’t Alberta a rich province? I wonder how many donations they need.
With insurance likely not covering any of the damage, pretty well everyone will have to pay out of pocket for any and all repairs and that is going to be a massive bill for tens of thousands of people (and businesses, of course). The aid will be very welcome for many who have been displaced from their homes with no immediate prospect of getting back any time soon.
I saw an earlier report that the Red Cross is supplying cots and blankets for seniors who have been evacuated in Calgary from care centers to Canada Olympic Park. Rich or poor, emergency supplies are always needed in a crisis.
So I just took a leisurely stroll down Memorial Drive… (!) The interesting thing is that in our area (Bridgeland), it’s not flooding from the river overtopping, but from the sewers getting overwhelmed. Eastbound Memorial (closest to the river) is actually passable past Edmonton Trail but it’s westbound that’s flooded, from flood waters coming back from the north side of it. I’m still about 25 feet higher than this, so I’m not too concerned right now. On the lighterside: There’s a photo on the CBC site of someone in our neighbourhood catching a fish right in front of their house.
I don’t think the waters have gone up much, but they haven’t gone down any from what I saw around this time last night. The Langevin Bridge is getting its bottom tickled by the Bow, which is crazy.
Ive been working with a restoration company and I am a little surprised to hear that a lot of this will not be covered by insurance. I was just at a basement in Riverbend yesterday (and now evacuated) that was damaged from flooding earlier this month and it was all covered by insurance. A lot of the work we do is flood damage, usually due to plumbing, but flooding from storms is a common part of the business.
Phones have been ringing off the hook but we wont be doing much until the rivers recede obviously. I expect to be kept busy with the aftermath of this for a long time.
Calgary is a very rich city, and this is not New Orleans. That being said I have been in a lot of households of poor, struggling working people since I started with this company a year ago. These are people with enough income and foresight to have insurance or I wouldn’t be there, but still poor. Most of the worst effected neighbourhoods are pretty wealthy, and I expect have very good insurance coverage. We will see in the coming weeks just how hard a hit this is going to be.
High River’s evacuation was pretty touch and go last night, my mother in law was evacuated from her building by helicopter. I understand two of the reported fatalities are from the High River area. Going from the pictures and reports from family we are pretty lucky if get away with only that.
So far we have all been very lucky with few fatalities, and we have a recently well built up infrastructure has allowed a very good disaster response. Of all the places in the world for this to happen to the Calgary area is among the most able to withstand this kind of abuse.
I was out with some friends tonight, and came home across our river. It was expected to crest early this morning, between 0000 and 0200 hours MDT. It appeared to have done just that; the water level was a few feet below the road bridge deck on the route we took. It’s normally quite far below–perhaps 50 feet.
But that may be that (fingers crossed). The moon was out, and the clouds had cleared. Checking a local news website, I see that city bridges are not expected to be closed. However, local authorities have barriers ready just in case, and are still keeping people out of the river valley.
All is well in my home. No problems there, just some hungry cats. Thankfully, I stocked up on cat food.
Since sewer backup is covered for folks who have that rider on their policy, and since storms often result in sewer backup, that’s probably why your work is covered.
Folks who are flooded have little choice: restore as soon as possible, sell immediately and take a huge loss, or do nothing and take a huge loss. Thus they restore and hope that sewage backup coverage or government emergency funding will apply. If the restoration company does not get paid by the insurance company or the government, then the homeowner refinances and pays, and if homeowner does not do that, the restoration company relies on a builder’s lien (a.k.a. construction lien or mechanic’s lien) and goes to court for a judgment which (due to the lien that was filed by the restoration company shortly after completion of the job) will bump the restoration company ahead of most creditors. The tax man, and mortgages that existed before the restoration and that had nothing to do with the work, will usually keep their priority over the restoration company, but aside from that the restoration company will jump the line, so provided that the home owner is not already over extended with first and second mortgages, or way behind in taxes, the odds are that the restoration company will get paid eventually, even if it takes a forced sale of the property. Here is the Insurance Bureau of Canada’s statement about flood insurance not being available.
It really ticks me off to see some people in newspaper comments and on Facebook trying to score political points over the Alberta floods. Fuck all that shit, pardon my language - friends are in need of help; help out!!
Right now I’m trying to help out by donating to the Red Cross Alberta Floods fund - if there are other, more useful things I can do to help, someone please let me know. I’m too far away to take people in - further on up the road, we can see what tangibles people need.
