REGINA — Massive rainfall in the City of Regina led to localized flooding over the weekend.
According to Environment Canada, Regina received between 80 and 110 millimetres of rain, leading to a large number of calls for service.
“As of Monday morning, we had 127 calls from residents related to the storm event. The majority of the calls were blocked storm drains and catch basins, causing localized flooding,” said City of Regina manager of sewer and drainage operations Adam Bryant.
Most of the calls had come from the city’s northwest, confirmed Bryant.
No local infrastructure had been damaged in the storm. However, Bryant mentioned the storm also caused flooding in two local underpasses
“One was Albert Street, the other one was Argyle and Ring Road.”
There wasn’t enough water to close Argyle St. and Ring Road, but the Albert St. overpass remained closed until roughly 9 p.m.
The city said it activated its alert system for the first time to notify drivers of a road closure caused by flooding.
“It was a little bit of a testing period for us. The system came on as intended; all of the no rights do not enter were activated,” said Bryant.
Even with the alert, at least one driver had gotten stuck under the Albert St. underpass.
“There was nothing physically blocking them at the time, so we added some barricades after the system had kicked in to prevent further vehicles from going in,” said Bryant.
The city said it will hold a debrief to review how it can improve the system warning drivers about flooding and road closures in the future.
“If we don't have to add any additional barricades or anything and the signal can just operate it on its own then there's not an overlap from staffing getting out there, and then they can be focused on attending other areas, and then same with once the system kicks back in after it's all drained then there's not barricades sitting there blocking traffic waiting for someone to remove them,” he said.
Preventive measures for ensuring flooding doesn't occur under the Albert St. overpass will be explored as part of upgrades to Saskatchewan Drive, but details couldn't be provided by Bryant.
For future weather events, Regina residents are strongly encouraged to sign up for notifynow.
