Ottawa River flooding to surge back up to peak level
Posted May 9, 2019 10:32:00 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A worsening outlook on the Ottawa River now expects floodwaters to rise by 20 to 35 centimetres in Ottawa and Gatineau, with some areas seeing the river return to peak levels of last week.
By Sunday, river levels are forecast to rise by 20 centimetres at Lac Chats, near Arnprior, and by 27 cm at Britannia. That would see Britannia reach the same level as the flood's peak, last week.
Water levels at the Hull marina are expected to increase by 27 centimetres, and by 34 centimetres at Thurso, by Monday. Both of those levels would be below all-time highs.
Part of the reason for the predicted increase is rain, forecast to begin Thursday afternoon.
“Not good news, at all, for areas already dealing with a lot of flooding,” said Jill Taylor, 1310 NEWS meteorologist. “That ground is just so saturated, unable to absorb a lot more water.”
The other part of the equation is melting snow in the northern parts of the Ottawa River watershed, but the river's regulator said it's reaching the limits of its abilities to mitigate the runoff.
“Most reservoirs in the Abitibi-Timiskaming region are now filled,” the Ottawa River Regulating Committee wrote in its latest forecast. “Excess spring runoff from this region cannot be stored by reservoirs and will continue to flow to downstream locations.”
The regulator had previously warned that water levels would likely remain fairly high for at least the next two weeks.
