City taking flood precautions, advising residents do the same

By Mike Vlasveld

The City of Ottawa is preparing for the worst when it comes to potential spring flooding.

There has been no indication that conditions are primed for major flooding, like residents saw in 2017, especially given last month's thaw, but that is not stopping the city from taking all precautions.

Councillor for Ward 19 Cumberland Stephen Blais told The Rick Gibbons Show on 1310 NEWS, the city already has 50,000 sandbags in storage, and has purchased equipment that can modify a pick-up truck into an automatic sandbag-filling machine.

“The Public Works Department has also been proactively visiting, in Cumberland, the two neighbourhoods [hardest hit by last year's flood] to inspect the ditches and culverts, and identify areas where you don't want debris or something blocking an important outlet,” he explained. “They're inspecting those pieces of infrastructure to ensure that if we do get a flash of water, that it can flow through the system the way it's supposed to.”

Blais also encouraged residents to start taking precautions of their own. Of course, some will need to do more work than others.

“I know one resident, who unfortunately lost much of his house in last year's flooding,” described Blais. “Over the course of last summer and fall, he cut the foundation, completely re-landscaped his property and elevated his house to get it out of the high-water area and also contour the property so that the water flows a certain way to the low points.”

The city is hosting flood information sessions, starting next week. Technical briefings go Monday, including a full rundown on preparations that are being made by the city. A public meeting will then be held in Cumberland Tuesday evening at Cumberland Arena. Another meeting is set for next month in Ward 5 West Carleton-March.

In the meantime, Blais added that city officials continue to monitor water levels in the region, in conjunction with local conservation authorities.

Listen to Councillor Stephen Blais' full conversation with Rick Gibbons:

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