For the third time in six years, people living along the Gatineau River are preparing for a flood as they have been warned to expect the river to overflow on Saturday.
The city is once again distributing sandbags so that residents of Gatineau, Quebec, can maintain their properties. Once again, firefighters warn them to have an evacuation plan ready, just in case.
“The water is coming. That’s all they can do,” said Rue Adélard resident Susan Kennell, who has experienced it all before.
These are very unusual conditions in which you have a high flow of the Gatineau River and a low flow of the Ottawa River. – Michael Saric, Ottawa River Regulatory Secretariat
According to Francis Labe of Hydro-Québec, the blame lies with the unusually thick and late-melting snow cover this winter, combined with the recent rainfall over the huge Baskatong Reservoir 220km north of the city.
“All this snow has melted and filled the tank,” Lab said. “Everything was under control until the beginning of last week.”
The region was then flooded with as much spring rain in a week as is usually seen in a month. In addition, Hydro-Québec can control only about 40 percent of the water flowing into the Gatineau River. The rest of the spring flows into the waterway without control.
“It’s a lot of water to manage, unfortunately,” Labe said. “There’s only so much we can do.”
As a result, Hydro-Québec predicts that the water level in the Gatineau River could rise by 10 to 20 centimeters and by 20 to 40 centimeters in the Manivaki area of Quebec.
The Ottawa River Basin includes many tributaries, including the Gatineau River. Baskatong Dam is a large body of water about 220 kilometers north of the capital. (Ottawa Riverkeeper)
Ottawa’s Very Middle Year
For people living along the Ottawa River, this is a different story.
“This can be described as a very average year,” said Michael Saric, a water resource engineer with the Ottawa River Regulatory Secretariat, the agency that manages the flow across the Ottawa River Basin.
“As for the river itself, it is at very normal levels, declining towards summer levels.”
In a typical year, water levels would be more constant throughout the Ottawa River basin, which includes the Gatineau River. But this is not a typical year.
“These are just the vagaries of the distribution of precipitation and snow,” Saric said. “These are very unusual conditions where you have a high flow of the Gatineau and a low flow of the Ottawa River.”
Michael Saric of the Ottawa River Regulatory Secretariat says conditions on the two rivers are different this spring, as is the threat of floods. (Lori Fagan / CBC)
The secretariat does not predict floods on the Ottawa River this year and says the relatively low flow could also ease the burden on neighborhoods near the confluence of two rivers, such as the Pointe Gatineau, which has been prone to severe flooding in recent years.
Saric said the last such discrepancy was in 2003 between water levels in the two rivers.
“Looking at these comparative years and our other modeling, there is no indication of flooding in Ottawa or lower Lower Gatineau,” Saric said.
Labbe said Hydro-Québec also hopes that the good news about the Ottawa River will portend good for people living along the Gatineau River.
“We think the fact that the Ottawa River is quieter this year may not be as scary as it was in 2019 and 2017 in Gatineau,” he said.
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