SASKATOON – The city is optimistic this spring because of a slow melting season seen so far and flooding might not be as big of a concern as originally thought in Saskatoon.
Despite wanting warm weather to arrive, so far this spring city official say Saskatoon couldn’t have asked for better weather to fight off the risk of flooding.
“You know a lot of things have been working in our favour we’ve had temperatures just above freezing and just below at night and had the driest September almost on record before the snow came so those things are working in our favour.” says Galen Heinrichs, water and sewer engineering manager.
Because of the dry fall, hydrologists say the ground has been able to soak up what’s melted so far but if temperatures drastically heat up in the upcoming weeks certain areas may be in trouble.
The city is monitoring trouble spots and says it is ready to intervene with pumps if needed.
Residents are responsible to remove all snow around building foundations to reduce the risk of flooded basements.
“So we had a lot of snow leave the city already but there is still more to go so we could see some localized flooding in areas that get flooding that were old wetlands the same areas that flooded in 2011 could potentially flood if we get a lot of melt happening really quickly” says Professor Cherie Westbrook, at the Centre for Hydrology at U of S.
Hydrologist, meteorologists and other experts are meeting in Saskatoon next month for the 2013 Joint Scientific Congress to discuss issues and solutions to past situations.
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