Can anyone over there give us any information about the floods in Calgary that were in the news the other week??

Was it as bad as it looks on "you tube"?
Does it happen often?
Whats the chances of being flooded out in Chaparral?

Cheers

Roo

Hi Roo

Yep them were damn bad floods but I dont think that it happens that often.

No idea about Chaparral

I have pictures that my cousin sent to me - of McLeod and the Chinnook Shopping centre - if you pM me your email will gladly forward them to you.

gaynor
x

Why did the drivers drive so far in that the WHOLE car is covered?? sureley they should have stopped when it got up to the doors?????

Yeah totally agree with you there - the word mentality springs to mind !

I do know that they were really bad and it was all over the news all day for probably about 3 days as I was watching whilst at home in Lethbridge thinking "Shit am I going to be able to go back to the UK" (Floods were tuesday and we were due to fly on the Friday)

Gaynor
x

June is typically the rainy month. The storm that you were talking about was unusual as over 72mm fell in the worst part of the storm, 100mm overall.


As for Chaparral I don't know. It is a little flat in the South part of the city.


The did have bad storms apparently a few years ago. I think the level of flooding depends on the snow base, this year there was a big snow base which caused the rivers to run high, which doesnt help.

So was the flooding mainly beacuse the surface water drainage system could not cope or was it from river flooding, or both? Are there any particular parts of Calgary that one should avoid because it is in a flood plain?
Cheers
Flossie

It had nothing to do with the river being high and everything to do with the storm sewers being unable to handle the amount of rain that came down in such a short time.

so was anybody on here affected by it?

My condo was flooded.

A few people at my office had basement floods.

did you need your arm-bands ?

seriously, hope it wasn't too bad/irreparable/ruined/expensive !

wasn't a house in tuscany hit by lightning? and was on fire????

And most of the vids on you tube are of NE calgary.

Yep - big fire shown on tv - that was a pretty extraordinary thunderstorm though, by all accounts. We were sitting in a basement suite a few miles away, just watching it roll in and pass us by - the place shook !

The rain was very heavy for two days. Made me very glad we had taken out our house insurance the day before !!!! (And here's me hoping it would have actually covered useful things like fire and floods).

I am becoming an amateur weather lady - I love the fact that you can see SO much sky in all directions here. You can watch the weather coming and going so easily. It's fascinating (for now, ask me again in a year!) ...

Generally speaking, flooding can be caused by either or both of those factors.

As Steve said, the recent floods were caused by the volume of rain that fell in a short time.

However, damage during the June 2005 rains was due to a variety of factors. In some cases it was flooding of rivers, in other cases it was seepage of water into basements, in other cases it was sewage backup, and in still other cases it was some combination of the preceding factors. An estimated 40,000 houses in Calgary were affected. Mind you that was a 1-in-200 year flood.

Going from memory, some residential areas along the banks of the Elbow River, downstream from the Glenmore Reservoir, were evacuated by police order in June 2005. I seem to remember that parts of Elbow Park, Rideau Park and Erlton were affected in that way.

I personally think there is merit in steering clear of property that's located in a flood plain. With that said, though, being outside of a flood plain is not in and of itself a guarantee against basement seepage and sewer backup.

There were a substantial number of houses that were not in flood plains that experienced basement seepage and/or sewer backup in June 2005 and, for that matter, in June 2007. It helps if there is weeping tile (French drains) around your basement, if your roof has plenty of gutters that flow into downspouts that are directed well away from your house and if those gutters are clear of debris, and if your yard (garden) is sloped to carry excess water away from your house. You can help to prevent sewer back up by plugging basement plumbing (e.g., shoving a soccer ball into the toilet). But, as I said, these measures are not guarantees against flooding.

Many people whose basements are flooded and who think they're insured against floods find out that they're not. Insurance policies can be worded very creatively. There are floods and there are floods. Flooding from this cause may be covered while flooding from that cause may not be covered. It helps to opt for the most comprehensive kind of insurance you can find.

so what are the "Areas to Avoid"?

because i think with global weather going as crazy as it is floods will become more common