Flood Alert
Please don’t groan but we’re banging on again about rivers and flooding.
Why two consecutive blogs on the same subject? The cynical amongst you will presume it’s just because we’ve got the relevant photographs. Not quite true – we’ve mislaid some of the best!
So we’re continuing with this subject but this week we’re looking at flooding on a much bigger scale. Flooding is a global problem with immense local impacts and is a real threat to the wellbeing of hundreds of national economies and of millions of individuals. So, yes, it makes last week’s rain gardens look pretty small beer. But, if you are lucky enough to live in a democracy, then you, yes YOU, have the choice to play an active role in promoting policies which can begin to mitigate the devastating impact of floods of all sizes.
In the late summer of 2013, we visited the city of Calgary – prairie cow-town turned city slicker oil-town, which lies in the valley of the Bow River to the east of the Canadian Rockies. Regular readers will realise we also visited in 2023. We are not proud of our resulting carbon footprints, but both visits were linked to the passing of people who had played an important role in our lives.
The Bow River rises in the Banff National Park and flows south eastwards through the towns of Lake Louise and Banff before reaching Calgary. These mountain waters finally join the Oldman River (to the west of Medicine Hat (wonderful name), to form the South Saskatchewan River. That’s a total distance of 365 miles.
The Bow’s influence continues, however, as the South Saskatchewan flows into the Saskatchewan River which finally flows into Manitoba’s Lake Winnipeg.
For Albertans, 2013 is memorable for the massive flooding which hit the Bow River catchment area.
Above left: Looking downtown from Riverfront Ave in Calgary, during the Alberta floods 2013 (Ryan L. C. Quan - Own work, https://www.flickr.com/photos/ryan_quan/9147845946/)
Abov right: The Centre Street Bridge (June 21, 2013) (by Michael Dorosh Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26872133)
What we saw later that year was a huge compliment to the clear up process. The limited evidence of the flood included details like damage to the river banks, cycle paths which suddenly disappeared only to reappear further along, and bridges which continued to teeter over the water with only one end attached to land. Sadly this latter image was one of the photographs which have disappeared.
The story seems to go something like this:
Weather: in mid-June, high pressure builds up in northern Alberta and blocks air flow. Humid easterly winds are forced up the foothills of the Rockies and drop colossal quantities of rain, exacerbated by snow melt from the mountain ‘front ranges’. In a ‘typical’ June, it seems that Calgary receives about 115mm (4.5”) over the whole month. Between 19th and 21st June 2013, the region received over 200mm (around 8”) of rain. One town – ironically called High River – recorded 325mm (that’s more than a foot) in less than 48 hours.
Impact: massive flooding. Calgary’s Bow and Elbow Rivers are reported to have been flowing at three times their previous flood peak in 2005. There are plenty of other scary stats across South Alberta, but I think you get the picture.
People affected: in Calgary alone, the floods impacted on 75,000 people and triggered a huge evacuation. City authorities, the army, the police and a huge crew of volunteers, aided by social media, were all involved.
Irony: Oil company headquarters in downtown Calgary were flooded.
Special mention: both Calgary’s famous Saddledome arena and the adjacent Calgary Stampede ground were flooded. Amazingly, staff and volunteers enabled the 2013 Stampede to go ahead, just two weeks later. Apparently it was a very near thing.
Downstream: Saskatchewan and Manitoba braced for flooding but despite very high river levels, the impact was minimal compared with Alberta.
Cost in human life: 5 people died directly from the impact of the flood. Impact on the lives of Albertans: impossible to estimate; huge increase reported in mental health issues.
Cost in monetary terms: estimates vary hugely. C$5 billion or C$500 billion? You reads your websites and you takes your choice. Funding sources - largely local, provincial and national.
Lessons learnt: there seems to be a range of post flood investments in flood mitigation, resilience, forecasting, response planning and so on, but the viability of Canada’s longer term planning in resilience and carbon reduction is beyond the scope of this blog to assess.
On a local level, however, one thing is obvious: Calgary has fallen in love (again?) with its riverside.
The investment in riverine improvements makes a stroll, a run, a commute, a coffee, a sit-and-watch-the-world-go-by a pleasing and varied experience. Assuming you like large areas of hard surface … Good for people but is it good for climate resilience?
For southern India the key year is 2018 when massive floods hit Kerala.
The story in this tropical area seems to go like this:
Weather: significantly increased rainfall over the whole monsoon season and a period of excessive rainfall which fell on a number of days in the middle of the month – often over double that normally expected in any one day. Cause assigned to climate change.
Impact: Kerala’s water storage lakes were already full and 35 out of the State’s 54 dams (figure disputed) were opened, creating a massive downstream deluge and landslides, exacerbated by already sodden ground, deforestation/clearance of vegetation, inappropriate land uses and sand mining in streams, plus Kerala’s (lack of) disaster planning.
People affected: hard to find numbers but maybe one sixth of Kerala’s population directly affected by flooding; regional, state and government rescue and relief operations included military, police, medical teams, volunteers, fishermen, plus use of social media. Whole villages, roads and water treatment plants destroyed, Kochi airport temporarily closed.
Cost in human life: around 500 people dead or missing.
Irony: flood damage exacerbated by subsequent severe drought.
Costs in Monetary Terms: at the time the FT estimated $2.7 billion
Lessons (learnt?): better dam design (dams created for Irrigation and hydro-electric power not flood alleviation), better dam management, better record keeping, better disaster planning and disaster management, better catchment management.
Special Mention: film released last year entitled ‘2018’ subtitled ‘everyone is a hero’; Malayalam-language survival drama film based on floods, directed by Jude Anthany Joseph.
After the flood, life is still vulnerable for the river bank villages. Those who could afford it, rebuilt their houses on stilts. Others have made do with reparing what they have. The protective walls along the river’s edge still appear insubstantial and the level of the paddy fields is well below that of the level of the river channel.
Boats are the mainstay, and often the only, mode of transport but the blue and white river buses are nippy and frequent. The much more substantial Keralan rice barges are converted into houseboats for tourists. On the wider stretches of rivers there is plenty of room for all.
Where does this leave us? With an awful lot still to do. Can we leave it to our political leaders? Probably not. Britain, at least, has an election coming up. Please vote and please vote thoughtfully.
But the last word goes to the Indian Pond Heron, pottering happily through the ubiquitous water hyacinth.
