Heavy rain causes flooding in Cloverdale, on city roads

Heavy rainhas caused flooding in some low-lying areas and prompted the closure of roadsduring rush hour.

The city closed the Yellowhead at St. Albert Trail and 142nd Street from 121 Avenue to Yellowhead Trail. Most of the roads re-openedthroughout the evening with Yellowhead and St. Albert Trail estimated to open after10:30 p.m.

In Cloverdale, 98th Avenue was closed for about an hourand some people had to briefly leave their homes.

The entire basement of a townhouse condo complex on 92nd Street flooded with water.

Resident Jeremiah Townsend said he called the city Tuesday morning to get a storm water gate opened but no one showed up until it was too late.

"All they literally had to do was come down and turn a brass knuckle a half an inch and this problem wouldn't be here right now. We wouldn't be talking," he said.

"This isn't the first time it's going to happen, it isn't the last time it's going to happen. We need to be able to, everytime it rains, we can't have flooding down here. It's hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage."

City officials say they did everything possible.

"We do not normally open these gates until the river has gone down enough to what's called a 6.5 meter level and then we will open those gates," said ChrisWard, director of drainage services.

"As of 2:15 this afternoon the river had not gone down below that level but we did go out there to start to open those gates because of the flooding we were experiencing in the Cloverdale community."