Sections of some city streets were closed Tuesday, as relentless rain appeared to leave parts of the city’s storm drain system backed up throughout Edmonton.
Early Tuesday afternoon, a number of Tweets and messages from Edmontonians reported a number of low-lying streets and an underground parkade of a condo building located close to the river were flooding.
As crews dealt with the flooded parkade, police closed down a section of 98 Avenue near Connors Road in the Cloverdale neighbourhood.
On that street, flooding was reported early Tuesday afternoon in the underground parkade of a condo complex, and it was not the first time that complex had flooded.
Residents told CTV News the same condos were flooded in 2010 and one owner estimated the damage to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Later Tuesday afternoon, the city said that section of road had been re-opened.
In a press conference held late Tuesday afternoon, the head of the city’s drainage department said the water levels in the Cloverdale neighbourhood had started to drop, after the city opened drainage gates to the river, which normally stay closed while the water is high.
The gates were opened at around 2:15 p.m.
Manager Chris Ward noted that the water levels on the North Saskatchewan River had risen slightly, even though they had started receding after peaking on the weekend.
However, he said the level of the river later Tuesday afternoon was still not as high as the peak it reached Sunday.
“Earlier today the river levels on the North Saskatchewan River had been dropping,” Ward said, adding the river had dropped to 6.8 metres Tuesday morning, before rising in the afternoon to 7.1 metres.
“To put that in context, that’s still over two metres lower than the peak of the crest on Sunday.”
On Whitemud Drive westbound, the 178 Street offramp was flooded as well – at a press conference Tuesday afternoon, city officials said that section of roadway had been re-opened as well.
Officials said they had received about 90 calls related to flooding and pooling water, but aside from the flooded parkade on 98 Avenue, no other basements had been reportedly flooded.
Elsewhere in the city, underpasses and some roads were covered in water; the city said a number of sections of Yellowhead Trail had been closed due to flooding and ponding, but later Tuesday, nearly the entire roadway had been reopened, except for Yellowhead Trail at St. Albert Trail – which was expected to reopen by later Tuesday evening.
Drivers were also asked to be cautious in the northbound lanes of Groat Road at 102 Avenue, and the right lane of Victoria Park Road westbound towards Groat Road has been closed.
Anyone who finds their basement has flooded is urged to call the City of Edmonton at 311 to report it.
One Edmontonian was recording as a manhole cover in the area of 114 Avenue and 163 Street blew Tuesday (watch below).