The latest modeling of the city shows the peak for the Bow River coming Wednesday afternoon. The Elbow River is expected to peak on Tuesday, with an update on the schedule expected later in the morning. The city remains in a state of local emergency taken on Monday.
The last:
City officials closed a section of Memorial Drive to build a temporary ramp. Plans to build a quay to protect the Bowness community have stalled. Officials are looking for an alternative. Residents of Sunnyside and Bowness could see officials going door-to-door to warn of evacuation orders if conditions worsen. Susan Henry, head of the Calgary Emergency Management Agency, says she wants to see the afternoon forecast before evacuation decisions are made. There are boat warnings for the Bow and Elbow rivers. Leisure access to the Glenmore Reservoir is limited. City officials say it is encouraging to see that the rain is not as strong as originally expected.
The two areas the city is still most concerned about are Bowness and Sunnyside. Memorial Drive between 10th Street NW in the Kensington area and Edmonton Trail NE is closed Colton O’Reilly, a Sunnyside resident, said last night that he had received an emergency signal and was waiting to see what would happen next. “We keep our eyes on the river,” he said. Sunnyside resident Colton O’Reilly says he hopes mitigation efforts made in recent years can prevent damage on the scale of the 2013 floods. (Charlotte Dumoulin / Radio Canada) This closure was made to build a temporary ramp that crosses Memorial Drive. City officials decided to take this mitigation measure on Monday, given the forecast in the coming days. “There is no flood yet, but it is a safeguard if the water level reaches what we believe it could,” Susan Henry, Calgary Emergency Management Officer, told the Calgary Eyeopener on Tuesday morning. City officials have previously lowered the Glenmore Reservoir to reduce incoming water. That’s why officials have not been so worried about the Elbow River since Tuesday morning – bearing in mind that things could change as forecasts change. “Things are definitely under control. We learned a lot in 2013,” said Henry, referring to the combination of rapidly melting snow in the mountains and seemingly endless rainfall that caused $ 5 billion in damage and cost five lives in southern Alberta in 2013. “The fact that we are talking about these days before the peak of the river is expected is really very good news. “We can not remove all the risk, so we are worried about areas like Sunnyside and Bowness. There is a risk for them.” Susan Henry, head of the Calgary Emergency Management Agency, left, she said, during a meeting of the emergency management committee on Tuesday morning. Henry said the city wants to see the next forecast this afternoon before deciding on possible evacuations. (CBC News) On Monday, Calgary Mayor Giotti Godek said the local state of emergency allows police and fire services to go door-to-door in the event of an evacuation. It also provides the city’s water utility team with access to real estate to protect vital infrastructure and secure supplies quickly if needed. In a warning issued shortly after 5 a.m. Tuesday, Environment Canada said periods of heavy rainfall would continue today, with rainfall ranging between 75 and 125 mm until Wednesday morning in the Calgary area. The heaviest rainfall is expected to fall in the west, the agency said, with rainfall totaling 150 millimeters or more likely along the foothills and in the front of the Rocky Mountains. More follow.
Calgary Flood Risk Zone Map
Click on the map below to zoom in and out as you move. The red areas are possible floods, the dark orange marginal flood zones, the light orange floodplains and the yellow land flow.
