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Houston floods overshadow debate at Edmonton's utility committee

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Images of chest-deep water and Houston’s flooded freeways hung over Edmonton’s utility committee Wednesday as they struggled with how to protect this city from the storm of the century.

It’s a complex question of risk.

Should Edmonton lobby for the $4.7-billion it would need to prepare for the similar worst-case scenario officials believe climate change will make possible here?

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Or — since Edmonton’s type of flash flooding is the kind that just hits one area really hard at a time — should the city stress making better emergency plans and helping residents back on their feet after homes are flooded.

“At what point does it (just) make sense to say, ‘We will be there for you when you get hit.’ … Because we’re not stepping up in that way right now,” said Coun. Ben Henderson, whose own home in Rossdale faces a flood risk.

Like many of his neighbours, he can’t afford the flood insurance coverage now on the private market, he said. Under new provincial legislation, that means he’s no longer eligible for disaster assistance if Rossdale floods.

Provincial changes, brought in after the Calgary floods, have left many less protected than before. Edmonton could do some upgrades, he suggested, but also re-evaluate how governments respond to disaster.

Industry experts say Edmonton is leading the Canadian debate on this issue. It led other cities by analyzing flood risk street-by-street across the city, then released that information to the public after an Edmonton Journal freedom of information request. 

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Now council needs to lead the debate on risk, said Mayor Don Iveson.

Insurance companies and federal and provincial governments need to work with Edmonton to decide how it wants to handle flood risk, Iveson said: “These are multibillion-dollar, intergenerational questions.”

The utility committee voted to host a new round of public engagement, creating a citizens’ panel to analyze how average residents would choose. City officials are scheduled to keep working with other levels of government and report back in early 2018.

A man stands in deep flood water along West Little York Road in Houston as Addicks Reservoir surpasses capacity due to near constant rain from Tropical Storm Harvey Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017.
A man stands in deep flood water along West Little York Road in Houston as Addicks Reservoir surpasses capacity due to near constant rain from Tropical Storm Harvey Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017. Photo by Michael Ciaglo /AP

Chris Ward, Edmonton’s branch manager for drainage, said he saw images from Houston and just felt “sadness.”

“Empathy. … That’s way beyond anything you can design for,” he said, adding the rain that fell on Houston is the amount Edmonton normally gets in three years.

Ward is the highest-ranked city employee moving to Epcor on Friday when the city-owned company takes over drainage operations. He will be Epcor’s vice-president of drainage operations and construction.

City council will still wrestle with these risk questions; Epcor will act on the rules and risk tolerances it adopts.

But Houston offers other lessons for Edmonton, Ward said.

There will always be something you can’t plan for, he said: “Are you individually and collectively ready for something that you just can’t design around? … That’s your emergency planning.”

estolte@postmedia.com

twitter.com/estolte

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