Vancouver Cranking Up Extreme Weather Prep Efforts After Record Calgary Flooding
When Sadhu Johnston recently saw images of water flooding through downtown Calgary – and a few weeks later, through Toronto – his mind turned to details: How much rain had fallen, what areas were worst hit, where the water was going? And as the cleanup in Alberta got under way, Mr. Johnston, Vancouver’s deputy city manager, kept a close eye on the aftermath, touching base regularly with city staff who had been sent to Calgary to lend a hand.
“We had over 55 of our staff on the ground in Calgary for about a week, and that certainly provided us with a lot of important lessons and experiences we can learn from,” Mr. Johnston said. “But the ultimate thing is that these kinds of activities we are seeing are so extreme that the best we can do is update our plans, learn from other places and do the best we can.”
By “extreme activities,” Mr. Johnston was referring to weather. Such events are expected to become more common and are an increasing worry for insurers, city officials and homeowners. Globally, insured losses from natural catastrophes have ranged between $10-billion and $50-billion a year over the past decade. In Canada, water has surpassed fire to become the leading cause of property damage, and now costs insurers about $1.7-billion a year, according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada.
While it is unlikely that any urban sewer system in the world could have handled the amount of rain that fell in Toronto this week – nearly 100 millimetres in a few hours, more than the city typically gets in a month – cities are looking at pipes, drains and other infrastructure to help protect homes and people from high water. In Vancouver, that strategy includes separating the city’s sanitary and storm-water sewers and adding porous spots to streets and other paved areas so that some water can be absorbed into the ground instead of pouring into overloaded sewers.
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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/vancouver-ramps-up-extreme-weather-preparations-following-alberta-floods/article13207157/
