​Some Saskatoon homeowners clean up after torrential rain; others spared by new dry pond

Pius Gartner says he had to take off his shoes and pants so he could enter his home without getting them soaked last Monday. His corner-lot property became waterfront temporarily when parts of Saskatoon were pummelled by torrential rain.

"Every time it rains heavy this corner floods, but this time it was 14 inches above my back door, so she was tough to hold back the water," he said, noting the water poured in through his basement windows and clothes-dryer vent. 

"If I can't laugh about it, I'm going to — It's very disheartening." 

Gartner has lived on the corner of Dufferin Avenue and Bute Street in the Avalon area since 1979.

"The first probably 15 years we had no problems. It flooded the corner, but it never rose," he said, adding in recent years, the flooding has become more frequent.

"This is actually my third one. That first time, we got disaster relief from the federal government. Second time, I got insurance, but there is no more insurance now because of where we live." 

Gartner has already ripped out his carpet and baseboards while running fans to dry things out. He's unsure the extent of the damage to the drywall or appliances. 

He's waiting to find out if he qualifies for the provincial disaster assistance program, which is available to cover damage or loss to uninsurable, essential property.

City data shows upwards of 60 millimetres fell in some areas over the course of an hour. It also shows the storm intensity in some parts of the city amounted to a one in 25-year storm for about half an hour, but then became closer to a 1 in 100-year storm.

Gartner said he learned lessons from the last flood in 2017 — which was also described as a one in 25-year weather event — and the one before that seven years prior, so his important belongings in his basement had already been removed, raised or protected with plastic.

Now he's waiting, hesitant to do any work beyond the necessary repairs: "I'm just going to leave it empty until I know this neighborhood is fixed." 

Gartner holds onto a shred of hope that that will happen. Saskatoon is in the middle of implementing its flood control strategy — a nine-year, $54 million project expected to be complete by 2027 — to mitigate flooding in 10 at-risk areas, including the area he lives.

The first major phase of the strategy was the construction of a dry pond at W.W. Ashley Park.

A dry pond is a large, low field area that can be used as park space by the general public — except when it storms. When it rains, the dry pond is meant to hold rain water until the storm sewer system is ready to handle the influx.