Calgarians clean up after localized flooding from powerful storm

Strong storm results in big repair bills Some northeast Calgary residents say Saturday's storm was the worst they've ever seen. Stephanie Thomas reports.

Calgary — Some Calgarians had to spend Sunday cleaning up their yards, basements and vehicles after a severe thunderstorm pounded the city Saturday night.

Many homes were damaged due to the storm that whipped through a section of Calgary Saturday evening. Northeast residents were particularly hard hit.

"The worst part was when our window well, that started flooding on us, and we started getting the water to come in," said Christopher Rozenberg, whose basement flooded in his Redstone neighbourhood.

"It was about 20 gallons or more of water that we pulled out of the basement alone."

Rozenberg says thankfully he was home, and works as a carpet cleaner for Filthy Masters. That meant he had the equipment readily available to pump the water out.

"This is our first home, we got it back in August, and we said, 'Okay, we just got this thing, can't let it just die,'" he said.

Hundreds of cars were also left abandoned on city roadways, as officials said about 300 storm drains were clogged resulted in massive flooding.

City crews were also out Sunday, working to clear catch basins, removing debris and drain water from roads with the help of the fire department.

Officials saying some road closures are still in place but they aim to clear 50 locations.

It was a particularly bad situation for Ted Haynes. He spent Sunday vacuuming out water from his 1978 MG Midget, a classic car he bought just last week.

"Last night I just wrote it off," said Haynes. "The cars were just floating by, (and) the MG, it was right up to the top of the seats, outside the car."

Calgary Police say dozens of roadways were impacted, with crews cleaning up looking to remove abandoned vehicles.

Locations that are/were blocked with pooling water, lane closures or abandoned vehicles are:

City crews say to avoid any of the affected areas if you can, and if you see a problem or any flooding that has not been tended to, report it to 311.