More progress needed four years after flooding, say some Calgarians
CALGARY Homes have been rebuilt, riverbanks have been reinforced and city council has shifted its attention to shinier projects — such as a potential Olympic bid or new hockey arena.
It’s been four years since flood waters tore through communities across southern Alberta, leaving five people dead and inflicting more than $5 billion in damage across the province, in one of the worst disasters in Canadian history.
The 2013 flood has become all but a distant memory for many Calgarians, especially those who didn’t have to pick Lego out of their basement ceilings, mourn the loss of waterlogged family photo albums or spend months fighting with insurance companies.
“The urgency (for flood mitigation) is fading with Calgarians, but not for people who live in flood-affected communities. Every spring, there is a heightened level of anxiety,” said Ward 7 Coun. Druh Farrell.
“We as a council tend to move on to the next project, and that’s why I continue to bring up flood as an unfilled commitment.”
In the nearly 1,500 days since the Bow and Elbow rivers overflowed their banks, the city has committed $150 million to local flood mitigation, including drainage improvements, bank stabilization and bridge work, while the province has invested more than $92 million in flood mitigation in the Calgary area.
The city commissioned an expert panel in the wake of the 2013 deluge that brought forward 27 flood mitigation recommendations, now considered the backbone of the city’s path to flood resilience.
“The 27 recommendations ranged from forecast and monitoring all the way to the more complex issues of changing climate and its potential impact on future flood scenarios,” said Frank Frigo, the city’s leader of watershed analysis.
“What we have done in the past four years is a continual pattern of work on things that are short-term, medium-term and long-term.”
While strides have been made — the city says more than half of the recommendations are complete and the mitigation work finished to date has reduced Calgary’s exposure to flood damage by about 30 per cent when compared to 2013 — some residents aren’t satisfied with where the city is at four years out.
“There’s movement in the direction we’d like to see, it’s just taking longer than we’d like to see,” said Charlie Lund, who sits on Hillhurst/Sunnyside’s flood mitigation task force and lost the contents of his basement in the flood.
“We would have liked to have seen much more happen more quickly. I’m disappointed it’s taken as long as it has, but at the same time I understand how slow big organizations can be.” Others agree.
The Calgary River Communities Action Group formed in the aftermath of the flood to represent flood-affected citizens, and it continues to remain active and advocate on behalf of Calgarians.
“The train is farther down the track in addressing flood issues in this city than it’s probably ever been before,” said Tony Morris, co-president of the organization.
“The big fear we have is that train will be derailed with changes in government, lack of interest, cost considerations, all those things. That’s what we’re fighting against.”
For Farrell, who earlier this spring successfully pushed council to be clearer with the federal and provincial governments that flood protection remains a priority in Calgary, derailments could be spurred by glitzier priorities.
“I do worry that human nature will kick in and we’ll start to forget and move on to other projects that are perhaps more enticing, like the Olympics and the arena,” she said.
As the city continues to chug away at flood mitigation projects that include barriers, pump stations, gravel bars and sanitary system improvements, residents say they won’t stop worrying about a 2013 repeat until the local work is complete and upstream mitigation work is finished.
Morris said in addition to the obvious financial effects another flood would have on the city, the emotional consequences from the 2013 disaster include divorces, suicides, trauma and financial ruin.
“Considering the magnitude of what it is we’re talking about, four years after the fact seems like far too long to not yet have built upstream mitigation that we believe, and the technical people believe, is really necessary,” he said.
That mitigation includes the proposed $263-million Springbank Dam that would be built near Bragg Creek and capture water from the Elbow River to reduce flood risk, a project supported by the city but opposed by landowners and the Tsuut’ina Nation.
“The city has done a lot of work on stuff within our power, within the boundaries of the city, but we really need that upstream work to happen,” said Mayor Naheed Nenshi.
“That means that we’ve got to get that Springbank reservoir built and we also have to start moving quickly on what the upstream mitigation on the Bow River is going to look like.”
Rob Nieuwesteeg, a board director with the Calgary River Communities Action Group who lives in Bowness, said it’s likely the upstream work on the Bow won’t happen for at least another decade — and that’s a problem.
“This isn’t just about our homes and backyards, this is about protecting the downtown core, which employs thousands and thousands of people,” he said.