The long weekend was an extremely rainy one in Saskatoon and restoration companies are dealing with the impacts as many buildings experienced flooding. “It’s been extremely busy. We were busy beforehand, but now we’re just extra busy. We’ve been receiving calls since Friday night. Right now at count, we’re over 80 calls,” Carey Knihnski, the generalist at Saskatoon’s Fire & Flood said on Friday afternoon. Knihnski emphasized that most calls have been related to flooding, which is typically not as common this time of year. “We’re looking at water intrusion into home ... We’ve also had sewer backups happening. So it’s a wide variety, but the heavy rains have just created all this catastrophe to occur again,” Knihnski said. The City of Saskatoon mitigates the impact of flooding through its Flood Control Strategy (FCS). In a statement to CTV News, the City said the strategy identified nine locations and greatest risk for flooding around Saskatoon. “To date, the FCS completed dry storm ponds and underground storage in three locations that are open to the public with five additional dry storm ponds under construction and a final project in the design phase,” the statement read. “This $54 million dollar project received $21.6 million in disaster mitigation and adaptation funding from the federal government. Since 2021 this project has had a direct impact on reducing the flooding in multiple neighborhoods.” The City added the rainfall seen over the weekend was abnormal for this time of year, but the records will help plan for the future. “The event on the long weekend saw between a one in five year and one in 25 year event for different areas of the city. This was a significant rain event and it will be used to update modeling for the storm sewer system and inform future flood mitigation strategies,” the statement read. Knihnski shared that while he has enough equipment to fill the shelves of his warehouse, those shelves are bare at the moment. “We’ve got a lot of equipment but at times like this, we just don’t have enough equipment. Other restoration firms are in the same boat, and a struggle, but we’ll get through it,” Knihnski said. The generalist added that it’s always a good idea for homeowners to take preventative measures when it comes to flooding. “One of the biggest things is making sure if your eavestroughing has worked and your downspouts are away from the house, your landscaping is sloped away from your dwelling. Make sure your sump pumps are working. Test them every now and again,” Knihnski said.
