As residents continue to recover from last month’s flooding disaster, the Lakehead Region Conservation Authority and city officials are on full alert as a large amount of rain is expected to fall within the next 24 hours.
Officials with the LRCA upgraded their flood outlook to a flood watch Monday afternoon. It’s the second flood watch issued in less than a month. The change was made because the amount of rain expected to fall on the city in the next 24 hours. Weather predictions expect five to 10 millimetres of rain Monday night and then around 59 millimetres Tuesday afternoon with an additional 25 to 50 in localized thunderstorms later in the day.
An additional seven millimetres is forecasted for Wednesday.
Donna Blunt, vice-chairwoman of the Lakehead Region Conservation Authority, said the city has already received 12 to 30 millimetres of rain already but there have been no reports of flood yet and the Neebing-Macintyre Floodway hasn’t been diverted.
She said they issued the flood warning because with the amount of rainfall expected the potential for flooding exists especially for the amount of rain expected on Tuesday.
“Because of the past event, we feel it is important to issue this flood watch because it gives people an opportunity to keep an eye on weather predictions and move stuff they have near the waterways to higher ground,” Blunt said. “We have the potential to flood. I was speaking to our manager earlier and she was saying it’s hard to predict because the amounts could come through a thunderstorm. We can never predict where that’s going to happen and where the amounts are going to fall.”
Blunt believed that if the city received a heavy rainfall of more than 60 or 70 millimetres then most likely there would be flooding but wasn’t sure of the exact amount.
She said she’s hopeful that the rain spares the city this time.
Following the warning by the LRCA, city officials released a statement to media saying that they will be monitoring the situation.
“The City and its emergency partners have activated contingency plans to be in a state of readiness,” said Thunder Bay Mayor Keith Hobbs following an emergency meeting was called to discuss the flood watch warning.
During the rain storms, workers will monitor the sewer system as well as other infrastructure such as roads, bridges and trails, said Darrell Matson, general manager of Infrastructure and Operations.
“Depending on the specific locations affected, anticipated heavy rainfall could put added strain on the Water Pollution Control Plant,” Matson said. “The Plant continues to be staffed 24 hours a day to monitor the situation.”
