By Brian Platt, Ottawa Citizen, May 10th, 2017
As the floodwaters start to recede along the Ottawa River, one of the assessment teams hitting the ground is from the provincial government. It has a hugely important job: documenting the damage in order to activate and start processing Ontario’s brand new disaster relief program.
By Adrian Wyld, Ottawa Citizen, May 10th, 2017
Our family has grown accustomed to the many idiosyncrasies of our century-old farmhouse. The creaking walls, the various species that inhabit it, and even the tiny stream that runs through the basement in spring time. However, this year that tiny stream became a much bigger problem. After only a few hours of a broken pump, our entire basement was flooded in two feet of water.
Metro news, May 10th, 2017
OTTAWA — The federal infrastructure minister says cities should release any maps or data about flooding concerns in their cities.
Amarjeet Sohi says residents of municipalities deserve to know whether their home could be at risk of flooding so they can make informed decisions about their properties.
By John Curry, Ottawa Community News, May 8, 2017
The 26th season for the Carp Farmer’s Market at the Carp fairgrounds begins this coming Saturday, May 13.
It will be the start of a season that will see the market held on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. through to October.
Last year the Carp Farmers’ Market had a record number of vendors combined with record sales.All products sold at this producer-based country Carp Farmers’ Market must be grown, raised, produced or manufactured by the vendors themselves.
By Michel Haddad and others, Ottawa Citizen Letters to the Editor, May 8, 2017
Plan for Elgin Street just plain wrong
Re: Two-year Elgin Street construction endorsed by city transportation committee, May 3.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Ottawa took its tramway and all trolley cars off city streets. To this day, we lament the loss of such infrastructure. Now the city is proposing to remove two travel lanes on Elgin Street, permanently. It is short-sighted to take such important and scarce North-South infrastructure and capacity out of the transportation system. We do not have enough North-South transportation infrastructure as it is.
Elgin Street currently operates in the manner recommended by city staff anyway – as a low-speed, two-way street – except for peak periods. The “complete street” concepts the city has applied to Elgin Street are meant to “support multi-modal transportation.” However, the reduction of Elgin from four to two lanes will hinder rather than enhance public transit. All vehicles – buses, autos, trucks and bicycles – will experience choking gridlock.
By Kelly Egan, Ottawa Citizen, May 8, 2017
On April 20, or about 20 days ago, the spring rush of the Ottawa River was thought to be under control — with a “positive prognosis” being offered by the City of Gatineau as it proceeded with mostly precautionary flood measures.
Sandbagged. Oh sandbagged were we.
Suzanne Villeneuve, coffee in hand, stood on her porch on rue Moreau and talked about how there was no water in the house on Saturday, little on the street, but three feet by Sunday afternoon. “There was absolutely nothing, and – in matter of 24 hours — it came up and never stopped.”
By the Ottawa Citizen, May 8, 2017
Hundreds of people on both sides of the Ottawa River have abandoned their homes over the weekend amid record floodwaters. Read the bullet points for key rolling updates throughout the day. Our main story is below.
The floods at a glance: Good news:
Water levels have reached a peak, and should start falling unless there’s another deluge of rain
Bad news: Highway 174 has been closed between Trim Road and Cameron Street due to soil erosion
There are many devastating stories emerging, such as this one: Flood victim put home on market only a few weeks ago: ‘I’ll be in the hole for the rest of my life’
By Erin McCracken, Ottawa Community News, May 7, 2017
Armed with shovels and bright orange sandbags, west end residents worked side by side through the rainy weekend to shore up weak points along the banks of the rising Ottawa River in a race against time and Mother Nature.
“It’s pretty incredible knowing that everyone’s working together to keep the community safe,” said Brigit Nielsen, who has lived in Britannia for four years.
(...)“There’s weak points,” Nielsen said, adding that locals were worried about rising water levels and the potential for wind to send the waves over berm constructed last year between Rowatt and Jamieson streets that was designed to keep the Ottawa River from spilling over into the low-lying areas. “Hopefully, it’ll stay calm.”
By David Reevely, Ottawa Citizen, May 6, 2017
We can save millions of dollars on new suburban roads by building bike tracks next to them instead of painting bike lanes on them, the city has realized.
It’s part of a big package of ideas for making Ottawa’s new subdivisions cheaper to construct that planners and developers have been working on for years, and probably the most obviously smart.
Roads for cars and trucks are paved atop layer after layer of stabilizing foundation; they have to withstand years of pressure from thousands of pounds of rubber and glass and metal. A cyclist weighs a couple of hundred pounds at most, and there’s no point, the city has realized, in building a road extra wide only to reserve a metre on either side of it for bikes. Cycle tracks next to sidewalks, on beds built to the lighter sidewalk standards, are good enough.
By the Ottawa Citizen, May 7, 2017
This is a real “good news, bad news” weather forecast.
For those fighting the rising flood waters (including the Canadian troops who are now in Gatineau), the good news is the rain is expected to stop sometime this afternoon.
The rainfall warning in effect since Thursday was ended by Environment Canada just before midnight on Saturday. Ottawa has had more than 100 mm of rain in May so far.
By Terry Pritchard, CBC News Ottawa, May 5, 2017
As heavy rains cause chaos across parts of eastern Ontario and west Quebec, the City of Ottawa is holding off on declaring a state of emergency, officials said Friday afternoon.
"At this time, staff do not recommend declaring a state of emergency, as city services are responding within their capacity," said Anthony Di Monte, the city's general manager of emergency and protective services, in a Friday afternoon memo to Mayor Jim Watson and the rest of city council.
(...)Local conservation authorities have issued flood watches and warnings, and the board that manages the Ottawa River basin told CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning said the rising waters on that waterway were "very worrying."
By Alex Abdelwahab, Ottawa Metro News, May 5, 2017
A woman in her 20s was struck as she rode her bike along Elgin Street during the morning rush hour.
(...)The incident happened on the same day the Transportation Committee is discussing a redesign plan for Elgin Street that cycling advocates have said fails to provide safe biking infrastructure. They have called for segregated bike lanes.
The “Elgin Street and Hawthorne Avenue Functional Design Study” includes plans for wider sidewalks and raised intersections. It will also reduce the speed-limit to 30 km/h and reduce the number of on-street parking spaces from 122 to 90.