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When it rains it pours, and that was the case in Saskatoon on Sunday night as 44 millimeters (close to two inches) of rain fell, leaving some areas dealing with minor flooding.
The City of Saskatoon classified the downpour as a one in two-year event, which means it sees this amount of rain from one storm on average once every two years.
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“Some (flooding was) reported at Laurier and Confederation drives intersection, and a few other places around the city which is typical,” said Russ Munro, Director of Saskatoon Water. “Our underground storm system is designed to handle a one in two-year storm event.”
Heavy rain that hit Saskatoon on June 20 in 2022 was considered a one in five-year event.
“No damage has been reported at this time,” said Munro. “That doesn’t mean there won’t be some in the future, right now the biggest impediment to the public is (in) some of the intersections with the rain water as it’s carried away.”
Munro said the storm ponds that the city has been developing and opening over the last few years did see some action on Sunday.
“We’ve been doing a number of storm ponds around the city through the flood control strategy,” he said.
“What we’ve heard is they worked well. Typically they’re designed for an even larger rain event — we’re looking at more of a one in 10-year rain event for the storm ponds to be activated.”
The water that was left around the city dried up pretty quickly, said Munro.
“As far as we know everything cleared up after the storm,” he said. “We had a pretty short duration of rain (so) it clears away with the storm system after.”
Some storm drains in the city, specifically in the Confederation neighbourhood, ended up being overwhelmed due to the heavy rainfall in a short period of time.
Munro said the city does a number of things to help ease that stress on the storm drains.
“Street sweeping not only beautifies the community, but it does prevent grit and debris from getting into the storm system,” he said.
“We do sewer inspections … and then occasionally flushing (the storm system).”
The city has also been working on a project called super pipes.
“Super pipes are like tanks under the ground,” said Munro.
“They’re shaped like pipes, they’re large and they’re intended to take some of the large volume of rain and hold it for a period of time and slowly release it.”
Munro said people who see a storm drain that is flooding should call the customer service line at 306-975-2476.
“There can be hazards under the road that aren’t seen,” he said. “So we don’t recommend anyone get in it if they’re seeing flooded storm drains.”
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