Heavy rain causes flooding, closes streets around Regina

Heavy rain overnight Monday and into Tuesday morning has caused some flooding in different parts of Regina.

The City closed the Albert St. and Saskatchewan Drv. underpass Tuesday morning due to the water level underneath.

Several parts of Ring Road are also restricted late Tuesday morning, according to the City.

Kurtis Doney, director of water, waste and environment, said a new tactic was taken where they placed graters at the Albert St. underpass to prevent residents from driving in the flooded areas under the bypass.

Doney said Regina is a relatively flat city, adding the underground system is designed to handle small storms while the roads are designed to handle the larger storms.

“It’s okay to have small flooding on streets, that ensures that the water is being contained within the street right away,” he explained, “We’re really focused on ensuring that it does not impact residents and businesses.”

Impacting residents and businesses are also some of the risk factors taken into consideration for drainage upgrade program, as well as depth of ponding.

Angie Holsten and some of her neighbours in the area of Quebec Street and College Ave. have reported “Lake Quebec” to the City.

While the flooding hasn’t damaged either of her properties on College Ave. and Quebec St., the flooding raises issues when it comes to parking and access as she operates a home business.

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Holsten said the drainage on the street has been an ongoing issue for about two years.

“More recently I notice it’s been progressively getting worse where after any rainstorm it doesn’t drain,” she said, adding she understands the City has a long list of roads in need.

Residents are reminded to check sump pumps and basements and to put drain spouts down and pointing away from infrastructure.

The City also said the heavy rain has caused some delays for transit.

The official ECCC station (RCS) in Regina has reported 56.4 mm of rain so far, but some reports are up to 64 mm, according to CTV News Regina meteorologist Bradlyn Oakes.

“This is basically a month’s worth of rain in one day,” said Oakes, “we typically see about 67 mm of rain in July for the entirety of the month, that’s our average from 1980 to 2010.”

The current forecast is calling for a 30 per cent chance of showers for Regina with the chance of a thunderstorm Tuesday night.

Sunshine is expected to return by Thursday.