Keeping up with the big melt

REGINA – From minus 40 to plus 3 in one week – it’s been a rapid warm up in Saskatchewan, which means a rapid melt.

“All of it was underwater,” said Harvey Schick, a Regina resident working to break up snow and ice around sewer drains outside his home.

After 28 years, Schick says he’s no stranger to it.

The effort is multiplied at hundreds of catch basins around the city, including one in south Regina backed up with more than 20 centimetres of standing water.

“If these things are blocked on top or frozen down below, the water has nowhere to go,” said Chris Warren of Regina’s winter maintenance department. “If it can’t find its way to another catch basin, chances are it can be right across the street.”

The warm up also reveals another annual problem – potholes. If you speed through one large enough, you could inflict some damage on your vehicle.

“The whole tire and wheel assembly could go down into the pothole and cause some damage to the tire, sidewall and the aluminum rim itself,” said Kevin Lane of CAA Saskatchewan.

Your suspension is at risk too, Lane says. Plus, the bigger the puddle, the more chance of sucking water into your engine. Lane says the easiest way to avoid a soaking is to slow down.

With more above-zero temperatures expected, this melt will only progress – and the water will keep flowing. “We’re thinking probably in two weeks time, we’ll be through this and the streets will be dry,” said Warren.