Heavy rains and a raven brought floods and blackouts to St. Albert and Sturgeon County on Monday.
The heavens dropped about 37 millimetres of rain on the region, according to Alberta Agriculture soil moisture specialist Ralph Wright. The region had already been drenched by about 24 millimetres of rain over the weekend, meaning it got about a month's worth of precipitation in three days.
That maxed out St. Albert's stormwater system, says utilities manager Dan Rites, causing small floods throughout the city and a small lake near McKenny Avenue and Ray Gibbon Drive. "It's kind of been all over the place."
Police temporarily closed the intersection of McKenny and Ray Gibbon so public works crews could drain the water, Rites says. There was also a small flood near the Enjoy Centre and a popped manhole cover near St. Vital Avenue and St. Albert Trail. Perron Street would usually flood in this kind of situation, he notes, but didn't for some reason.
Jared Tremblay of Deer Ridge says he knew of about 18 homes in his area with flooded basements due to sewer backups. "The guy kitty-corner to me had over a metre of water in his basement."
Tremblay says he spent much of his morning loaning sump pumps and extension cords to his neighbours. "This is probably our fourth sewer backup, so this is old hat for me." The previous ones happened at a different home, he adds.
St. Albert had major floods in 2008 and 2007 following similar storms.
The city is upgrading its pipes to handle higher water volumes, says Todd Wyman, the city's director of engineering, but it's impractical to replace them all. Staffers are focusing on choke-points such as Havenwood Pond, which they recently expanded.
The city will spend the next few days cleaning up from the floods, Rites says. "Hopefully the rain will let off."
Anyone with flood problems should call public works at 780-459-1557.
Tremblay says he's frustrated with the city's apparent inability to handle these frequent storms. "It's not going to get better. It's going to get worse."
He called on the city to step up its efforts to fix problem areas like Deer Ridge. "Just fix the problem, otherwise it's going to happen again."
Blackout
Sturgeon County didn't have many flood problems Monday, but the surrounding area did have a blackout.
About 10,000 people in Morinville, St. Albert and Alexander First Nation lost power Monday after a raven flew into an AltaLink substation near Morinville at about 10 a.m., says Stan Orlesky, spokesperson for Fortis Alberta.
"A bird such as a raven can get in and sit on an energized component and touch a grounded component," he explains. The resulting short-circuit kills the bird and creates a massive fireball that fries any nearby components, knocking out the substation.
Staff got the power back on at about 11:25 a.m., Orlesky says. Bird-related blackouts are relatively common at substations, so staffers are upgrading them with rubber-insulated components to keep the birds from getting zapped.
Any power outages should be reported to Fortis at 780-310-9473.
