The monsoon conditions that swamped North Battleford at the end of the working day July 13 were discussed at council Monday.
The rainstorm had caused localized flooding at various points in the city. Councillor Ryan Bater pointed to the situation in the Kildeer subdivision, particularly the corner of Meadow Lark Lane and Robin Place.
“There were videos on social media showing considerable flooding,” said Bater, who wanted to know why the flooding was particularly bad there.
City Manager Jim Puffalt noted their data indicated that it had been a one-in-25 year rain event.
“Residential storm sewer systems are not able to handle one-in-25,” said Puffalt. “They’re designed for one-in-two or one-in-five.”
He also noted the rain was spotty that day. The airport only saw an inch, while Killdeer received over two inches in a span of about 45 minutes, said Puffalt.
The city manager noted there is one bottleneck area on Territorial Drive designated for repair this fall, and that should help.
Still, “the amount of rainfall that came just overwhelmed the system,” said Puffalt.
A sore point for council was the number of drivers who charge through the large puddles at high rates of speed.
Councillor Don Buglas noted there was a lot of frustration expressed by homeowners in areas where cars were going through the floodwater at a fast clip, sending water into basements.
“If there’s some way we can get that information out to people,” said Buglas, “that it may seem cool or something in the area at the time to go splashing through the puddle with your vehicle at a considerable rate, (but) it can cause considerable destruction for homeowners nearby,“
Mayor Ian Hamilton noted he witnessed this sort of thing happen himself on that afternoon on 17th Avenue and 101st Street, and called it “not acceptable.”
