EDMONTON – The downtown Bissell Centre is scrambling to look after hundreds of clients after sewage flooded its basement where more than 400 meals were cooked every day.
Bissell Centre Ceo Mark Holmgren CEO said it could be a month before everything is cleaned up, including a food storage room and an area for clothing to give to clients.
No damage estimate was available.
The flooding occurred Monday during a thunderstorm.
“Our understanding is there was a sewer surge going through this area of town,” Holmgren said. “It just came up through the basement and popped our drains. There was this rush of water and waste across our entire basement and then it subsided but it left puddles and goop all over.”
The centre at 10527 96th Street has hired company to clean up the mess and make certain everything is sanitary before reopening the kitchen and adjacent areas.
“We do over 400 meals a day and our intention is not to stop doing that … so we are going to be faced with going to the store every day and just buying what we need,” Holmgren said.
This plan will greatly increase the centre’s expenses Holmgren said, and they are turning to the public for help.
The centre joins a growing list of flood victims this month.
The city revealed Wednesday that up to 240 millimetres of rain has fallen in some areas of Edmonton in July, while leaving others relatively untouched. Average rainfall for Edmonton this month is 90 millimetres. The city says heavy rains has left the ground saturated, which leads to surface run-off.
The Parkallen neighbourhood was hit particularly hard July 18 when storm drains failed to handle the run-off. The city said 30 millimetres of rain fell on the south-centre area in a half-hou, but even with all that rain the storm system should have been able to handle the load. The city said the reason behind the flooding were blockages caused by debris in the storm system rather than an inability to handle the volume of water.
“Let it be clear that the problem with that was debris,” acting city manager Bob Boutillier said.
“If that debris had not been there, what you saw on the media, that flooding in the middle of the roadway wouldn’t have occurred. The system would have worked, it’s designed to do that.”
The drainage system worked well in most areas. The west end, for example, saw the heaviest amount of rain, but also experienced only a minimal amount of flooding said Sid Lodewyk, the city’s acting director of drainage operations.
“For all of these storms, it’s a learning experience,” Lodewyk said.
“What we are doing is looking at what happened and how our facilities performed and trying to decide where we can go from there.”
Comments