After numerous residential areas were flooded following heavy rain fall overnight and into today, the Town of Cochrane will be reviewing storm water management in the effected areas.
"Basically, it was a large volume of rain in a very short time. We’ll learn from it and make any necessary adjustments," stated Laurie Drukier, the town's senior communications advisor.
Sunset Ridge, was one of the areas hardest hit by the flooding after storm water failed to drain quickly enough causing up to three-feet of water in some parts, submerging cars and pooling around homes.
Samantha Nickerson, communications officer for the Sunset Ridge Residential Association, said, "The Town and the developer have dealt with most of the flooding issues and drains have now been re-opened. I believe everyone reacted quickly and seriously to prevent further damage. At this time, I am unsure how many homes have been affected or how many cars have been damaged."
As for preventing similar problems in the future, Nickerson said there were some drains that "had some mud issues due to neighbouring build activity," adding, "There really was an insane amount of rain in a very short amount of time."
Nickerson emphasized that both the town and Melcor Developments reacted quickly to the flooding and had the issues resolved as quickly as possible.
"Melcor has offered to help out with clean-up and aftermath in their area of Sunset Ridge, but I'm not sure that includes damage to basements or cars," she said.
Drukier also said the problems were mostly due to the speed and volume of the rainfall and that Melcor is "following Town standards for storm water (which are the same as Calgary’s)."
"There were issues in Heritage and Glenbow as well, so it’s not all about areas under development. Having said that, we are going to evaluate whether changes should be considered for storm water, sediment control etc in areas under development," she said.
Brent O'Neill, assistant development manager with Melcor, said the flooding was a result of what he called a one-in-100-year type of event and the company-mobilized quickly to mitigate the flooding.
"All you can do is get guys on site to mitigate the problem as quickly as possible," he said, adding Melcor's crews did an excellent job getting the water drained as quickly as possible. In response to Nickerson's comment on mud impacting the drains, he said he wasn't aware of any sediment issues and the drainage systems have mechanisms in place to prevent sediment build up.
