Frank Frigo is the Senior Planning Engineer for the City of Calgary, in the Water Resources Department, and his presentation is about the Calgary flood from the perspective of the City of Calgary.
The Water Department provides technical information for the City of Calgary. They run models, prepare inundation mapping, and interpret engineering specifications. In this presentation, Frigo addresses the emergency management organizational structure, technical tools used immediately preceding and during the flood, and pre-flood reservoir management.
The emergency management organizational structure was already in place for the City of Calgary, and there were clear lines of communication at the municipal, provincial and federal levels. This had a major positive impact on how efficiently and effectively plans were put into effect.
The technical tools, such as maps and models, were in place before the flood and provided a basis for the responses and how to prioritize them. The City of Calgary was working with a very limited natural and constructed storage of water at a time when there was rapid rainfall of up to 325mm over two days. There has not been a major flood in Calgary since 1932. Since the City of Calgary has not had first-hand experience of flood management in over eighty years, the emergency management organizational structure and technical tools available were vital.
The City of Calgary is the owner and operator of the Glenmore Reservoir, and it must manage the many uses of the reservoir, which include supplying drinkable water, recreational use, environmental concerns, and flood control. It was built in 1932, primarily for water supply, and only allows for 7 meters of active flood storage. Yet it was also a significant benefit at the time of the flooding, preventing over two meters of additional water damage in the downtown area.
This presentation was a part of the CWRA Alberta Branch Annual Conference, March 2014.
