DRYDEN - Dryden continues its cleanup following a weekend of severe rainfall that closed roads and flooded more than 150 homes.
On Friday, the city was hit with a heavy downpour that resulted in the closure of Gordon Road, a section of Highway 601, and Thiel Road. The heavy rain also flooded the King Street underpass and created at least one sinkhole.
“I think it caught everybody by surprise on Friday,” said Dryden mayor Greg Wilson.
“I don’t think that anybody was prepared for what was going to happen. It came really quickly.”
The downpour lasted for almost 90 minutes and dumped nearly 150 millimetres of rain in some parts of the city, causing traffic to be backed up and some cars left in the rising water.
Wilson said that nearly 150 homes have been flooded, with over 50 experiencing severe flooding.
“I’m getting feedback that no matter what we would have done, our infrastructure is not able to handle that volume of water in that short period of time like that,” Wilson said.
“There’s not much we could have done.”
As of Monday afternoon, Wilson said that there are still some problem areas in and around the city. Gordon road is still impassable and the corner of Thiel Road and Highway 601 is still partially washed out.
Wilson credits the quick work of the public works department for getting things moving again on Dryden roadways so soon after the storm.
“By the time we had the sinkhole and the traffic was backed up to the time we had it reopened and the traffic rerouted, it was 26 minutes, so kudos to public works,” Wilson said.
Despite the damage to roads and private property, Wilson said that the storm did provide the city with a valuable learning experience going forward.
“The opportunity with this problem is that we got to see some of the weak points in the city,” he said. “I think public works and other professionals need to do a proper assessment and give a proper report to council so we know what we are dealing with.”
Wilson added that council will then need to decide whether it should invest in infrastructure improvements.
“From council’s perspective, we have to decide if we invest the money in infrastructure to handle a 50-or-100 year event, or do we do the best we can with what we got and try to mitigate those problems when they do occur,” Wilson said.
Wilson expects the report from public works by the end of the week.
