Tension was in the air, along with a lot of rain, Tuesday as St. Albert residents anxiously waited to see if floods would hit this city. Luckily, rains stopped in the late afternoon.
According to Environment Canada the St. Albert area received rainfall similar but slightly less than Edmonton – between 20 and 40 millimetres, depending on the area.
The dramatic flooding in southern Alberta must have been on St. Albert residents’ minds Tuesday as rains continued to fall most of the day, with reports of high water in Edmonton compounding the tension.
Mike Howes, owner/operator of DKC Sparklean, which handles high water repairs and restoration, said he and his staff were watching the situation but it turned out to be very isolated.
“We had a few (calls) yesterday,” said Howes Wednesday. “Everything we had yesterday was seepage claims.”
He said of the calls DKC received, many were apartments with leaky windows, commercial spaces with parking lots full of water and some homeowners who had drainage issues on their property such as basements leaking or water pooling up against glass doors.
“There wasn’t any areas that were hard hit,” said Howes.
He compared the half dozen or so calls Tuesday to the hundred or more the company received after bad flooding in years such as 2004.
Howes said he was keeping an eye on the situation as the heavy rains came down, especially as he was hearing news reports about a couple of spots on Edmonton’s Whitemud Drive that were going under water, particularly overpass areas.
But the restoration expert said that, just because rains stopped Tuesday, it doesn’t mean the problem of water is gone. Howes said the water table right now is maxed out; groundwater space is full, meaning any heavy rains have nowhere to go but overland.
Luckily, noted Howes, the rains stopped when they did Tuesday.
“So yesterday, had we got another hour or two, we might have been at that point,” he said.
Regardless of rainfall, Howes said most problems are addressed with simple landscaping.
“Ninety per cent of problems are drainage issues on lawns,” he said.
It doesn’t have to be a crack in the foundation that’s the culprit either, he noted. Concrete can be porous anyway so, combined with water pressure, it allows moisture to seep in. But most problems in residential areas are much simpler.
“Yards that slope toward the house,” said Howes.
He stated many neighbourhoods have lots where some houses are next to other lots which are on higher ground. Water runs down toward the lower home.
Howes said some simple dirt work and landscaping such as a swale can prevent major damage to a home.
