‘I WAS SCARED FOR FUTURE OF THE CITY’
Standing next to a benign-looking Bow River for a flood anniversary photo opportunity Wednesday, city officials shared memories from 2013 and looked ahead at what still needs to be done to protect Calgarians from the next big flood.
1. Standing by an angry river
In 2013, in the midst what was one of the largest evacuations in Canadian history, Mayor Naheed Nenshi said he felt real fear.
“I remember standing on the side of the river at two o’clock in the morning. It was dark, we had turned all the electricity off as a precaution, and all I could hear was the river (and) I had never seen it run so fast, so high and so angry before,” Nenshi recalled.
“I was a little bit scared. It was the first time in the crisis that I was scared for the future of the city.”
2. More work needed now
The flood risk in the city has been reduced by a third since 2013 through various floodmitigation projects — but it’s not enough.
Nenshi was unequivocal in saying that the Springbank dry dam must be built quickly, and another dam or reservoir must be built on the Bow River. “Without those we remain a community at risk,” Nenshi said.
3. Widespread effects
The 2013 floods weren’t just a problem for inner-city communities: more than 60 per cent of Calgarians were directly or indirectly affected.
The impact of the 2013 floods went beyond just flooded homes, hammering water treatment plants, railways, LRT systems, bridges and arterial roads such as Memorial Drive.
“The reason that flooding is such an important investment priority for the city is that so many secondary and ancillary effects occur with flooding. A lot of them related to transportation or business disruption,” said Frank Frigo, the city’s lead on watershed analytics.
4. Adding up the costs
The city has worked out the equivalent annual cost of flooding amounts to $172 million.
Frigo says that over time, flooding represents a problem for Calgary valued well into the tens of billions of dollars.
“That’s why it’s an important step that we’re one-third more resilient. That doesn’t sound like much, but it does represent about $52 million every single year over the last five (that) we have already reduced. That is really significant.”
5. Team effort going forward
Land-use decisions are routinely being made based on the city’s flood risk data and flood inundation maps.
Frigo pointed to examples in Quarry Park and Cranston, where the city required developers to raise the earth for buildings to sit above the one-in-100year flood level.
“Every land-use application that is in the zone of risk is circulated to my team. It’s a pretty normal part of my business to be involved with developers to ensure that we make decisions together that make sense.”