Kristen Villebrun and Wendy Bush hoped they wouldn't have to pray for Chedoke Creek, but four years after they first raised alarm about the water's condition, they were part of an Indigenous full moon ceremony to do just that. About 50 people showed up near Princess Point on the dark and frigid Monday evening for the monthly ceremony, which was particularly special as it focused on Chedoke Creek. The body of water that runs into Cootes Paradise had about 24 billion litres of sewage and storm water runoff leak into it due to a gate being left open.
Authorities were on standby to evacuate more people in southeastern Norway on Friday, where huge amounts of water, littered with broken trees, debris and trash, thundered down the usually serene rivers after days of torrential rain. The level of water in swollen rivers and lakes continued to grow despite two days of dry but overcast weather, with houses abandoned in flooded areas, cars coated in mud and camping sites swamped.
A town near Quebec City declared a state of local emergency and other communities ordered preventive evacuations on Tuesday as torrential rain caused rivers across southern Quebec to burst free of their banks. By Tuesday, between 500 and 600 people were forced from their homes in Ste-Brigitte-de-Laval, where the mayor declared a state of emergency for the next 48 hours.
California - one of the driest states in the US - is being inundated with torrential rain and flooding. And given the decades-long drought in the region, which has led to restrictions on water usage in some areas, you might be wondering if this extreme weather could in some ways be a positive. But the downpour is unlikely to have a big impact on the drought. In fact, experts say it would take consecutive years of severe wet weather to reverse it in the long-term.
Pius Gartner says he had to take off his shoes and pants so he could enter his home without getting them soaked last Monday. His corner-lot property became waterfront temporarily when parts of Saskatoon were pummelled by torrential rain. "Every time it rains heavy this corner floods, but this time it was 14 inches above my back door, so she was tough to hold back the water," he said, noting the water poured in through his basement windows and clothes-dryer vent.
The third in a series of increasingly intense storms is approaching British Columbia, leaving residents bracing for more torrential rain while officials are still addressing damage done across the Lower Mainland and southern Interior from the last two storms. Communities across the province were busy preparing for the latest storm during a brief reprieve from the weather in some areas Monday. Farmers rushed again to move dozens of cattle, including calves, to higher ground while residents packed sandbags around their homes.
"We are considering this to be a catastrophic loss," Rob de Pruis, director of consumer and industry relations at the Insurance Bureau of Canada, told CTV National News. Floods in both Toronto and Calgary in 2013 prompted the Canadian insurance industry to offer what it called "overland flood coverage" starting in 2015. The Insurance Bureau of Canada estimates about 50 per cent of B.C. property owners have purchased it. "We do know and we have received reports of overland flood damage, sewer backups, even wind damage," de Pruis told CTV News Vancouver. "If you have been evacuated and you do have the overland flood coverage, you also have coverage for your additional living expenses."
