City of Regina still investigating calls related to storm

For the second time this week, Regina had to deal with underwater underpasses, damp drivers and saturated streets around the city.

Kurtis Doney, the city’s acting executive director of citizen services, said Friday afternoon the city is still investigating how many calls it received about storms and floods.

“As far as damage, nothing of significance occurred with our infrastructure, and obviously it takes a lot more resources to be out to clear storm drains and to ensure that the water is flowing properly,” Doney said during a media conference.

Storm ponds should start to absorb after 24 hours, but are currently oversaturated because of heavy rains from last Saturday.

“Typically, the storm ponds are never at full capacity, and I don’t believe that any of them are at full capacity from the last storm event. They can take more. But as we get repeated storm events, they do start to reach their capacity,” said Doney.

The city has short-term and long-term plans to improve infrastructure to storm water ponds and underpasses. Short-term plans include encouraging people to avoid flooded underpasses.

“As a part of our emergency response plan, we do put large equipment in place to try and prevent people from going through the underpasses when there is a significant risk to health and safety,” said Doney.

The city isn’t the only one sharing that sentiment with people.

We are literally begging you to stop driving under flooded overpasses.

— SGI (@SGItweets) June 2, 2023

The city’s long-term plans include a flood level light that can detect water levels in the underpass.

“If (the underpass) is flooded, it would take control of the lights and not allow people to go into the flooded underpass,” said Doney.

Doney said the city will work with SGI on the flood level light, but there is no time frame of when it will be implemented.

Other than oversaturation, storm drains could have also been blocked because of leaves, garbage, dirt and elm seeds.

The storm that hit the city last Saturday saw around 70 reports of storm-related incidents.

The city also received many calls about Thursday’s storm, but is still investigating.

The Regina Police Service said it received a number of calls overnight and throughout Friday morning.

“The calls ranged from those sharing details of flooded underpasses and streets (there were many) to assisting in locating the owners of abandoned vehicles,” police said in a statement. “We also assisted in blocking off flooded areas to discourage drivers from going through.”