Calgary more flood-resilient than in 2013, but remains vulnerable on Bow River

City officials said Calgary is 55 per cent more flood resilient than in 2013, which is expected to reach 70 per cent when the Springbank Off-Stream Reservoir is complete.

Ten years after the Bow and Elbow rivers spilled their banks, causing devastating impacts to Calgary, the city is halfway to being fully protected against a flood of similar scale.

However, questions remain over protections on the Bow River.

Calgary city officials said the city is 55-per cent more resilient to floods than it was in 2013, and that number will jump to 70 per cent when the Springbank Off-Stream Reservoir on the Elbow River, and the Sunnyside flood barrier on the Bow River, are completed in 2025.

On Tuesday, city representatives along with the Calgary Emergency Management Agency held a press conference to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of the 2013 floods, and highlight the flood mitigation work that was completed since.

“We were not defined by what happened to us, rather we have been defined by our collaborative response and immediate actions towards mitigation,” Mayor Jyoti Gondek said.

$1 billion has been spent between all three levels of government on flood mitigation in the city.

Part of that work includes upgrades to the gates on the Glenmore Dam to increase the capacity of the reservoir; combined with the Springbank reservoir it’s expected to largely quell concerns of a large-scale flood on the Elbow River in the future.

It’s a relief for advocates like Brenda Leeds Binder, co-president of the Calgary River Communities Action Group, who noted there is more work to be done.