The clean-up continues after parts of the city were flooded on Tuesday.
“We talk about the 100 year storms. Well, I think we just witnessed one,” says Mayor Peter Chirico. “Reports from the North Bay-Mattawa Conservation Authority is that’s the highest level that’s ever been recorded on Chippewa Creek since they began recording.”
Data from Environment Canada shows 44.5 mm, or just over an inch and a half, of rain fell at the airport on Tuesday.
Chirico says when you have that much rain in a short amount of time, coupled with the ground still being frozen and no place for the water to go, it finds the easiest path which in this case was over land.
Several streets were flooded, with houses and basements impacted too.
He says city employees worked around the clock to make sure closed streets reopened, and more.
“Kudos to city staff from public works, parks and rec, everybody jumped on board, our senior staff, making sure that the citizens remained safe and our infrastructure remained safe,” he says.
Chirico adds a lot of water went through system, specifically the wastewater treatment plant.
“With the upgrades that have been performed over the past number of years, it certainly helped, and we were able to contain it and manage through it,” he says. “Another couple hours of rain and it would have been a different story.”
The mayor also says it may be abnormal for a hockey game to have a rain delay, but they didn’t want to take any chances going ahead with the Battalion playoff game.
It was postponed to Wednesday night.
“We had one entrance into Boart Longyear Memorial Gardens, and that was Ferguson Street,” he says. “If there was ever an emergency or medical emergency we did not feel it was right to continue with just one. It would have been chaos coming in and going out.”
Chirico also reminds parents to be mindful of safety concerns with fast-moving water and keep their kids away from area creeks and waterbodies.
He adds they’re keeping an eye on Lake Nipissing’s water levels too.
“Right now, we’re good,” says Chirico. “As the water comes out of the bush we’ll be monitoring it on an hourly basis to make sure all of our low-lying areas in the city are safe.”
