Heavy rainfall keeps city crews hopping
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City of Brandon crews were busy pumping rainwater on Thursday after a storm dumped nearly 27 millimetres on the city overnight and on Wednesday.
Despite the deluge, the Assiniboine River continued to recede on Thursday, measuring at 1,178.25 feet at 10:15 a.m. — more than a foot lower than the 1,179.49-foot crest early Monday morning.
“Last night we received a thunderstorm that came through the city, and when people woke up this morning, there was water accumulating and pocketing in many areas on the inside of the dike,” emergency co-ordinator Tobin Praznik said on Thursday.
Floodwater continues to inundate Dinsdale Park in Brandon as water levels in the Assiniboine River slowly recede on Thursday despite heavy rainfall overnight and on Wednesday. (Tim Smith/The Brandon Sun)
Pumps were running in low-lying areas of the city in the morning, moving water back into the river.
“This is kind of expected when we get these heavy rain events, and this is why we kind of plan accordingly,” Praznik said.
Environment and Climate Change Canada meteorologist Brian Proctor said the 26.9 mm of rain the city registered in the Highland Park neighbourhood was “very convective in nature.”
Nearby communities registered far lower amounts, he said.
Praznik said the city was forced to pump water out instead of letting it drain normally because gates meant for land drainage were closed in preparation of the flood.
“If obviously we get a significant rain, it’ll continue to back up and potentially put more pressures on our internal infrastructure,” Praznik said.
Crews were monitoring the situation closely and were on “high alert,” as the city can be susceptible to this situation.
“In this particular case, the accumulation obviously filled a number of our areas where water was sitting, and now we want to make sure we’re removing it before the next rainfall that we might experience because we don’t want compounding effects with these events.”
The updated water level is consistent with what officials were expecting.
Residents in low-lying areas should still be ready for an evacuation order, and the city is still reminding people to stay away from the river and flood-related infrastructure, as they can be more dangerous than they appear.
» alambert@brandonsun.com