The city of St. Albert is dealing with flooding resulting from the record-setting June rainfall in the capital region. Water-logged sports fields, underwater trails and parks are a few of the issues faced by St. Albert residents, businesses and organizations. Last month was the wettest June on record in Edmonton, surpassing the previous record set in 1914. St. Albert wasn’t spared either, with the Sturgeon River cresting at 3.02 metres higher than normal just after midnight on Sunday, according to Regan Lefebvre, the senior manager of utilities with the city. “Right now, we’re sitting at 2.94 metres,” he said. “So it’s coming down, but it’s coming down very slowly.” Some of the trails along the river, particularly ones that pass under bridges, are underwater, along with some docks. On Canada Day, the city deployed a tiger dam borrowed from the province, which uses water from the river to inflate tubes that help prevent further flooding, along with jersey barriers and berms. The water has managed to flood two baseball diamonds at the Meadowview Ball Park, with around 16 to 18 inches of water around the fences, according to Joel McGovern with the St. Albert Men’s Slow Pitch Association. “We have players out here that have been playing for over 40 years, and they’ve never seen anything like this,” he said. Rain and flooding has meant the association has had to reschedule hundreds of games already and even when the water drops, the cleanup is also expected to pose a challenge. “On the weekend we were out here for the fastball tournament, and we were witnessing birds diving into our outfields to retrieve small fish, so we know that they’re out there,” McGovern said. “About a week from now we’ll be able to start getting a better assessment of the damage and what activities we have to take to try to address that.” External Affairs, along the banks of the Sturgeon, is still recovering from damage caused by sewage overrun earlier in the summer and has been watching the river creep up towards the building. “We’re at kind of a fun place where I’ve got water coming up from inside of the berm and water slowly rising on the other side of the berm,” said Garret George, External Affairs CEO. This isn’t the worst flooding the city has seen, back in 1974 Lefebvre says the river got to nearly half a metre higher than it is now and the flow was four times as strong. Despite that, the city expects it to take weeks for the river levels to recede and anticipates issues afterward, including potential sinkholes. As the water level goes down, banks may become wet and soft, which could be dangerous to people who get too close to the river. There is also more rain expected in the forecast through the rest of the week. With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Noah Rishaug
