Alberta Flood Watch 2013

[red sky]

Originally Posted by MoneyGuy

I'm pulling together some cash donations from local businesses for flood relief. It will be fairly substantial as folks up here in the Edmonton area want to help. Where can I send this for max value for flood-ravaged residents of High River?

Give it to me. I will donate it on your behalf and my company will match the donation. Double the donation!

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

Oh good, we're all saved...

BTW Bigtime how goes your AMA dealings?

[Bigtime]

Heard back from my adjuster just yesterday, word is I find out Monday and he is cautiously optimistic given the last few days.

[Acey]

Lethbridge gets Selena Gomez... and Red Deer gets Rush. Well that's annoying. I'll seriously consider a trip up there.

[Regulator75]

[Bigtime]

Funny enough the Waterfront complex received zero flooding. I anything they should play that fact up.

[Bigtime]

I'm not crazy about this announcement today from the AB government, seems like they are putting it all back on floodway and floodplain residents and not announcing any plans to design, build, and upgrade to handle floods like this is the future.

[ranchlandsselling]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

I'm not crazy about this announcement today from the AB government, seems like they are putting it all back on floodway and floodplain residents and not announcing any plans to design, build, and upgrade to handle floods like this is the future.

Context required.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/alberta...ffer-1.1366798

HIGH RIVER, Alta. -- The Alberta government says it will pay to help flood victims rebuild outside flood zones or protect their homes from future floods, but it warns the offer won't be the same the next time rivers rise.
The province announced on Sunday that it would provide funding from its disaster recovery program for homeowners to rebuild or relocate to new locations outside flood risk areas.

There will also be funding available through the same program to protect buildings within a flood fringe area with infrastructure such as berms, or by raising a house.

But the government says homeowners in a flood fringe who do not implement mitigation measures to protect against a one-in-100-year flood will not be eligible for the same assistance if there's another flood.

Honestly doesn't sound bad to me. Maybe you could point out what you're against?

[ranchlandsselling]

Anyone have a map of that flood zone/fringe for Calgary? City of Calgary site doesn't seem to load anymore. Just crashes and says not available. At least for me when I look.

[Sluggo]

Originally Posted by ranchlandsselling

Anyone have a map of that flood zone/fringe for Calgary? City of Calgary site doesn't seem to load anymore. Just crashes and says not available. At least for me when I look.

For floodplain info
http://www.envinfo.gov.ab.ca/FloodHazard/

[Bigtime]

Does anywhere in the AB gov announcement make any mention to them actually upgrading or building infrastructure to prevent or minimize this again in larger floods? Because I sure can't find it, every mention is about individual homeowners "flood proofing" their homes going forward.

They want us to protect against a 1 in 100 flood, sure no problem but they better do likewise if not better.

[octothorp]

I'm skeptical about their ability to accurately determine what a 100-year flood is, given that there have been so many conflicting reports about what this last flood is. In regards to the Bow, I've heard this estimated as everything from a 50-year to a 100-year flood. It also seems that this sort of estimation changes based on actual floods. So what might be a 100-year flood now might be re-estimated to be a 50-year flood based on the next few years of weather patterns.

Using Sunnyside as an example, at what point are we looking at water actually coming over the berm? Is that a 60-year flood, a 100-year flood, or a 500-year flood? I feel like that's pretty-much the only way that my house is going to get overland flooding, and I'm not sure how we'd mitigate against that sort of event.

The minister does reference community-level flood mitigation measures, and I think that's pretty-much the only way you could do anything useful. If water comes over the berm for any significant amount of time, most of Sunnyside is going under.

[photon]

Guess I'll post here what I posted in the other thread.
So it says they'll pay for repair and rebuilding, but won't pay for damages from future floods on rebuilt homes, what about damages from future floods on repaired homes? Can someone choose to relocate even if their home was only repaired instead of needing to be rebuilt?

What does financial assistance mean for people who choose to relocate? If development is banned in those areas, and there's zero flood coverage available if one does rebuild in that area, the property value is going to plunge to a fraction of its former value. Does that mean the province will buy out their properties at market value before the flood?

What about condo owners? The condo board is repairing a property, can individual owners choose to relocate even if their property was on the Xth floor and wasn't directly impacted, but is impacted because they have to pay to have the rest of the building repaired, now not only are their property values going to plummet because development isn't allowed in the area, they are financially on the hook because there'll be no government assistance available going forward, will they even be able to take advantage of the relocation assistance?

Or could the board of an entire condo corp decide to relocate the entire condo, building a new one somewhere else?

Seems like a nightmare to me.

[Burninator]

Originally Posted by octothorp

I'm skeptical about their ability to accurately determine what a 100-year flood is, given that there have been so many conflicting reports about what this last flood is. In regards to the Bow, I've heard this estimated as everything from a 50-year to a 100-year flood. It also seems that this sort of estimation changes based on actual floods. So what might be a 100-year flood now might be re-estimated to be a 50-year flood based on the next few years of weather patterns.

This is the map to The City of Calgary's Floodway / Flood Fringe. It looks like these maps are before this flood. I'm pretty these maps are based on the 100 year flood and they look pretty close to the maps the AB government just put out. I am also pretty sure that a 100 year flood is not a flood that occurs once every 100 years, but rather the worst flood in the last 100 years. So that flood could have occurred in 1913 or 2013, or even multiple times in between. I too haven't heard if this was a 100 year flood or not.

[Burninator]

Originally Posted by photon

Guess I'll post here what I posted in the other thread.
So it says they'll pay for repair and rebuilding, but won't pay for damages from future floods on rebuilt homes, what about damages from future floods on repaired homes? Can someone choose to relocate even if their home was only repaired instead of needing to be rebuilt?

The Herald article has more information now and it sounds like they will help you pay for flood proofing if your house is in the floodway even it wasn't damaged.

The nightmare to me seems like the no future development part. Still really light on details so hard to dissect. But what if someone has a dumpy house on a 1 million dollar lot? Worthless now since the government won't approve a new house? Can't be right. I could see them requiring flood proofing and not providing future money, but to no new development? Crazy. I am guessing there is some detail missing or perhaps the Heralds reporter assumed too much.

[ranchlandsselling]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

Does anywhere in the AB gov announcement make any mention to them actually upgrading or building infrastructure to prevent or minimize this again in larger floods? Because I sure can't find it, every mention is about individual homeowners "flood proofing" their homes going forward.

They want us to protect against a 1 in 100 flood, sure no problem but they better do likewise if not better.

That's fair - doesn't actually say what the governement will do. I was more focusing on the "if you rebuild or build on the flood plain we won't be there for you next time" verbiage that seems to make sense to me.

[ranchlandsselling]

Originally Posted by Sluggo

For floodplain info
http://www.envinfo.gov.ab.ca/FloodHazard/

Thanks - I'm in the Yellow so that is a bit of a relief.

[octothorp]

Originally Posted by Burninator

This is the map to The City of Calgary's Floodway / Flood Fringe. It looks like these maps are before this flood. I'm pretty these maps are based on the 100 year flood and they look pretty close to the maps the AB government just put out. I am also pretty sure that a 100 year flood is not a flood that occurs once every 100 years, but rather the worst flood in the last 100 years. So that flood could have occurred in 1913 or 2013, or even multiple times in between. I too haven't heard if this was a 100 year flood or not.

My understanding is actually quite different: that when the phrase '100 year flood' is used, it means a flood that has a 1% chance of happening in a given year. A '50 year flood' would have a 2% chance, a '500 year flood' would have a 0.2% chance of happening in a given year. I'm not sure of that, but most technical articles I've read since the flood occurred have seemed to use this distinction. So basically, it's a model for probability, not a model of history.

[OldDutch]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

Does anywhere in the AB gov announcement make any mention to them actually upgrading or building infrastructure to prevent or minimize this again in larger floods? Because I sure can't find it, every mention is about individual homeowners "flood proofing" their homes going forward.

They want us to protect against a 1 in 100 flood, sure no problem but they better do likewise if not better.

This seems completely half baked to me. Ban all future development in a 100 year old neighbourhood and slowly choke it out, just because the city can't or didn't build a proper sewer system?

Are they really going to tank entire parts of Calgary that they zoned and approved because it makes more sense than upgrading infrastructure?

I am not in panic mode yet because as it stands with the info given, I can see people walking away from their worthless homes, and/or class action lawsuits flying everywhere. The levels of gov't must take responsibility for a problem they crated and now are pinning on people "who should have known better".

These houses are 100 years old, neighbours have been there for decades and now their getting hung out to dry? I think the gov't needs to keep their mouths shut until they figure this out, until then people are going to freak based on the half information they are putting out.

[Buzzard]

Originally Posted by octothorp

My understanding is actually quite different: that when the phrase '100 year flood' is used, it means a flood that has a 1% chance of happening in a given year. A '50 year flood' would have a 2% chance, a '500 year flood' would have a 0.2% chance of happening in a given year. I'm not sure of that, but most technical articles I've read since the flood occurred have seemed to use this distinction. So basically, it's a model for probability, not a model of history.

I was listening to an expert/scientist on the matter a few weeks ago on the radio. This is exactly how he described it.