Alberta Flood Watch 2013

[Bigtime]

A Roxboro resident has redeveloped her basement to make it "spray and wash" come the next flood:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgar...579866?cmp=rss

[Looch City]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

A Roxboro resident has redeveloped her basement to make it "spray and wash" come the next flood:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgar...579866?cmp=rss

They could also just, you know...move to a location away from the flood zone?

Seems absurb to spend all that extra to make your house "flood proof". You'd still lose all your belongings just the same when/if it floods.

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by Iggy City

They could also just, you know...move to a location away from the flood zone?

Seems absurd to spend all that extra to make your house "flood proof". You'd still lose all your belongings just the same when/if it floods.

Disagree 100%, come the next flood these residents (myself included) will know to move all valuables and other belongings higher up. Had I spent 2 hours doing that last June we would have lost next to nothing.

However like this resident I clearly see a value in where I live, and we are taking some very big steps to mitigate our home from the next flood, and in essence have a floor of the house that will be "spray & wash" with almost nothing that will need to be thrown away.

Now we see residents doing what they can to mitigate the effects of future flooding, the question becomes what will our various levels of government do?

[Looch City]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

Disagree 100%, come the next flood these residents (myself included) will know to move all valuables and other belongings higher up. Had I spent 2 hours doing that last June we would have lost next to nothing.

However like this resident I clearly see a value in where I live, and we are taking some very big steps to mitigate our home from the next flood, and in essence have a floor of the house that will be "spray & wash" with almost nothing that will need to be thrown away.

Now we see residents doing what they can to mitigate the effects of future flooding, the question becomes what will our various levels of government do?

Fair enough, you have more experience than me with living in the flood zone haha.

What will the government do? They'll take a helicopter tour and proclaim "This is awful, perhaps we should do something...." over and over again.

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by Iggy City

Fair enough, you have more experience than me with living in the flood zone haha.

What will the government do? They'll take a helicopter tour and proclaim "This is awful, perhaps we should do something...." over and over again.

Sadly that seems to be about it so far.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

Disagree 100%, come the next flood these residents (myself included) will know to move all valuables and other belongings higher up. Had I spent 2 hours doing that last June we would have lost next to nothing.

However like this resident I clearly see a value in where I live, and we are taking some very big steps to mitigate our home from the next flood, and in essence have a floor of the house that will be "spray & wash" with almost nothing that will need to be thrown away.

Now we see residents doing what they can to mitigate the effects of future flooding, the question becomes what will our various levels of government do?

I don't know if I can word this nice enough, but I'll give it a shot. I live nowhere near the river, and that morning I was in my basement and heard the water rushing under the drain. I was worried enough that I moved a lot of stuff away from the drain and basically made sure that nothing was down that I would be really worried about.

I get that not everyone had that luxury, and of course some of the flooding was in areas where it couldn't be foreseen. I have zero issue with the governments funding people for losses, and I genuinely feel bad for them/you. But seemingly no one moved things? It just seems somewhat incomprehensible to me that people who live close to the river needed a harsh reminder that they should move valuables away from the potential flooding.

[Bigtime]

It's a good point Slava, however I think the scenario was that nobody on our street had ever been evacuated before. I was out at my daughters soccer wrap up party when the evac notice came through.

I rushed home, grabbed our "go" bag we had packed earlier in the day and took off.

Hindsight is 20/20 for sure when it comes to moving stuff up to higher ground and staying past the "deadline" of 7pm we were given to be out of the neighbourhood.

However my issue is that now homeowners are taking personal responsibility and mitigating their homes so that we don't end up with garbage mountains on the streets come the next flood. If we are stepping up and taking that responsibility will our various levels of government do what they can to mitigate the effects of future floods? It's not good business to have downtown Calgary closed for a week again.

[CalgaryFan1988]

Originally Posted by Regulator75

Very cool interactive link.

The flood six months after.

http://www.albertaconstructionmagazine.com/theflood/

So, with inflation into account, the Manitoba flood cost more than the Alberta flood? Surprising

[Slava]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

It's a good point Slava, however I think the scenario was that nobody on our street had ever been evacuated before. I was out at my daughters soccer wrap up party when the evac notice came through.

I rushed home, grabbed our "go" bag we had packed earlier in the day and took off.

Hindsight is 20/20 for sure when it comes to moving stuff up to higher ground and staying past the "deadline" of 7pm we were given to be out of the neighbourhood.

However my issue is that now homeowners are taking personal responsibility and mitigating their homes so that we don't end up with garbage mountains on the streets come the next flood. If we are stepping up and taking that responsibility will our various levels of government do what they can to mitigate the effects of future floods? It's not good business to have downtown Calgary closed for a week again.

Well the evacuation undoubtedly was unexpected and causes a bunch of problems. I totally agree that as a city we have to do something to ensure that we don't have downtown closed for a week, and the accompanying business disruptions that come with that.

Like I say, people should be compensated for losses because the extent of the damages was unforeseen and in many cases unpreventable. People who had never seen potential flooding in their communities were suddenly evacuated, and that is at least a rarity (hopefully) if not a once in a lifetime event. Then we have other people who live on a floodplain, and have seen flooding in the last decade, and seemingly took no steps to move valuables or keepsakes to higher ground. I do have some empathy for these people, but its hard to feel any real sympathy if that makes sense.

[Jimmy Stang]

Even though I'm far away from the river, it did seem that this flood came about far faster than our last one in 2005. I seem to remember than in 2005, it got worse over a few days until the point where things started to get sketchy. In 2013, however, it seemed to happen within about a day. I remember seeing Canmore flooding in the morning, things getting tense here later in the afternoon, and by the next morning it was just unbelievable. I remember thinking fairly early on that "this could be pretty bad", but I had no idea that the flooding would be so widespread. I don't think that many people did.

2013 was unprecedented flooding. Now that the precedent has been set, I think that people will naturally base their decisions on it for future years.

[Fozzie_DeBear]

Quick questions...

1-Is there no insurance provider in the world that would insure Alberta homes against overland flooding?

2-Can revenue properties get different insurance for flooding?

[Roughneck]

2005 was kind of a two flood scenario. There were steady rains for the week and the water levels rose and people got worried until the rains stopped for a bit, then one day the biggest rain came and pushed everything over the edge.

The rain they got in the mountains over about 24 hours is what made this flood so crazy. There just wasn't the same kind of leadup, it just all came at once.

[tvp2003]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

A Roxboro resident has redeveloped her basement to make it "spray and wash" come the next flood:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgar...579866?cmp=rss

From the article:

"The fully-developed nine-room basement with a master suite, guest room and fitness room had to be gutted."

[Bigtime]

Oh wow I missed that part. That's a big house.

I've also heard someone in Rideau/Roxboro has built a 5' high concrete wall around their house, and the front and back doors in the wall have inflatable rubber seals to make it watertight.

[nik-]

those people must be insanely loaded.

[Bill Bumface]

I think a lot of people lived in houses that hadn't seen a flood in their 100+ year lives got caught with their pants down. I don't really blame them, you always get warnings for snow, or tornados or storms, and nothing ever happens. You had some pretty huge floods just 9 years before and you were dry, so why wouldn't you be fine again?

I know people that were totaly dry in 2005 that moved all there stuff a few feet off the ground in the basement. They got 7' of water down there. I don't really blame them for not being more cautious, all previous experience pointed to that being a suitable course of action.

[Frequitude]

Originally Posted by Fozzie_DeBear

Quick questions...

1-Is there no insurance provider in the world that would insure Alberta homes against overland flooding?

2-Can revenue properties get different insurance for flooding?

On #2, I am no expert, but my understanding is yes. My brother has a revenue property down in East Elbow Park and had the business all incorporated or whatever you do. He was able to get business insurance for overland flooding and was fully covered.

[Bigtime]

So I'll be on CBC's The Homestretch at 4:40 today talking with Doug Dirks about the reno plans we are about to undertake to mitigate from future floods.

Feel free to listen in and laugh at that latte-sipping avgeek you know from the internet.

[OldDutch]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Stang

Even though I'm far away from the river, it did seem that this flood came about far faster than our last one in 2005. I seem to remember than in 2005, it got worse over a few days until the point where things started to get sketchy. In 2013, however, it seemed to happen within about a day. I remember seeing Canmore flooding in the morning, things getting tense here later in the afternoon, and by the next morning it was just unbelievable. I remember thinking fairly early on that "this could be pretty bad", but I had no idea that the flooding would be so widespread. I don't think that many people did.

2013 was unprecedented flooding. Now that the precedent has been set, I think that people will naturally base their decisions on it for future years.

Ya agree with this totally. I remember that day it flooded it was a work day, and I went into a meeting at 2PM and someone heard a rumor that Mission was getting evacuated. So I called my brother to tell him to stay at my house in Sunnyside...in the basement

I went home at 5PM with my wife and son and drove over the Centre Street bridge lower deck. The water was quite high, but it was even higher during the 2005 floods, so we thought very little of it. We got home like any normal day, and let our son run up and down the block. I remember being told by neighbors that "this one could be 3 times 2005". Which I said "Well my house is 1982 build and never has water touched it so I think this is no biggie"

Come 6:30PM, in the middle of supper, my Dad calls and says we have 30 mins to get out. Police are coming around and kicking everyone out of Sunnyside. No warning, just grab a bag and get out.

So I grabbed a few things out of the basement that were small, but the water started coming up the drains around 7:30PM.

So I can see why people did not move their stuff out. They either had 30 mins warning, or thought like I did that their house would be fine. I have learned from this whole episode and have game planned my basement to move as much as I can come next flood.

[Smartcar]

We installed a backwater valve. $1200+GST installed. Hopefully that will prevent damage in the next flood. We didn't have any overland flooding where we were.