City needs to adapt to floods
Montreal will have to adapt to more extreme weather in coming years, especially facing the risk of floods as we saw on Thursday. Various experts chip in here with their points of view.
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Mozai 09:00 on 2023-07-18 Permalink
The first few summers I lived here, I remember seeing rainstorms where the water on rue Ste-Catherine would rise above the curbs, even if just for a few minutes. Was that the norm? Then many summers passed without seeing it, and I don’t believe it was because the drain system was rebuilt — we merely had less rain.
Kate 09:28 on 2023-07-18 Permalink
Yes, there were a couple of summers of heavy rains here, ten or so years ago. I live in a ground-floor flat and there were a few instances when the water in the toilet slopped over because the rain was so heavy. (Clean water, thankfully.) That didn’t happen last Thursday.
I’d have to dig through weather records to figure out exactly when it was.
JP 09:52 on 2023-07-18 Permalink
I think 2009 was a heavy rain year. Just remember non-stop, day after day of rain.
JP 09:53 on 2023-07-18 Permalink
Heavy rain summer rather ( don’t remember the whole year but that summer was rainy)
Paul 11:35 on 2023-07-18 Permalink
We don’t hear about it, but Montreal has become quite proactive in terms of water management. All new developments need to accommodate water run-off on-site through retention basis to avoid overloading the system.
Is it enough?? At least our officials a conscious of the issue and being proactive.
Kate 12:04 on 2023-07-18 Permalink
There have been news stories about water squares like the Fleurs de Macadam on Mont‑Royal which was designed to handle heavy rain, and the article linked above says the city is building “three new underwater reservoirs to help drain heavy rainfall into water treatment plants [and] more greenspaces, which naturally absorb excess rainfall.” So I’d say it’s acting on it, besides digging to replace century-old sewers.
Here’s a current news story about a park renovation in Lachine meant to turn the area into a water retention park and a story from April about a project in Point St Charles.
CE 15:08 on 2023-07-18 Permalink
I remember that summer in 2009. It seemed there wasn’t a single day without at least some rain. As a result, the vegetation was extremely lush that year. I’d be interested to see the tree rings from a city tree and see how big that year’s ring is.