Author: AGMS

I'm a game programmer, doing pretty much everything (from Wii, Kinect to iPad). On the side, just for fun, I write file systems (for the nifty BeOS/Haiku operating system) and experiment with metadata.

Champlain Park Emergency Preparedness

We need your help: Champlain Park Emergency Preparedness

Many residents in the Ottawa region are dealing once again with rising flood waters from heavy spring snow melt. Last summer, tragedy struck many when 6 tornadoes caused extensive damage throughout the region and cut off power to most parts of the City for extended periods. Battery backup for cell towers died in a couple of hours. Had the power outage lasted more a few more days, land lines also would have failed and hospital generators might have run out of fuel or might not have been able to keep up with demand.

We can’t know when the next natural disaster will hit or when but it makes good sense to be well prepared.

How can you help?
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Flooding Status in Champlain Park

As mentioned in a post on Facebook by our city councillor Jeff Leiper, sewer overload warnings have been delivered to the appropriate houses (a flyer or fire department visit); if you didn’t get one then there’s no worry about keeping usage down.

The Pontiac and Keyworth sandbag wall should be okay; the water won’t be rising too much and should mostly affect low driveways there.

Also the Patricia sewer overflow seems to be mostly ground water coming from upstream (higher water pressure). I assume it’s better to let it flow out there than filling the pipes.

Pontiac and Keyworth Sandbag Wall in the Rain and Sleet

Hazardous Waste Disposal at Tunney’s Pasture – May 5, Sept 15

As described in https://ottawa.ca/en/residents/garbage-and-recycling/hazardous-waste-and-special-items we have local waste depots twice this year, for disposing of paint, old electronics and other things too dangerous for regular garbage.

The depot runs from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Tunney’s Pasture. Dates this year are:
Sunday, May 5, 2019
Sunday, September 15, 2019

Some of the odder and more dangerous things I’ve brought and the chemical experts at the depot had fun looking over – old gardening chemicals with Malathion (still used for West Nile mosquitoes), DDT and Chlordane.

Please Reduce Sewer Usage in Champlain Park

Jeff Leiper’s office has suggested that reducing household discharge to the sanitary sewer system for the next few days could help reduce the risk of over-taxing the water system. Which means reducing usage by following cottage rules and cutting down on deep baths/long showers/etc:

If its yellow, let it mellow. If its brown, flush it down.

This is because river water is getting into the system. One of our residents writes:

Our concern was heightened this morning when a manhole cover at the corner of Pontiac and Patricia blew off from increased water pressure caused by the city blocking the sewer pipe yesterday on Pontiac behind the school. It’s still spouting a column of water and flooding the forest on the west side of Patricia and creeping towards Clearview. All they accomplished was pushing the problem 200m west.


Link to Full Size MP4 Video.

By the way, Dovercourt is making their showers available if you need them.

Sandbagging Complete

Thanks everyone for helping out, the sandbagging is complete in our neighbourhood, for now. If you want to join the roving bands of sandbaggers (a bunch of them showed up in an OC Transpo shuttle bus), check out the city web site or ask around (councillor Jeff Leiper’s staff would know).

Flood info page at: https://ottawa.ca/en/residents/emergency-services/emergency-preparedness/flood-information-0 There’s even a video there about making sandbag walls.

Sandbagging Complete – Site all cleaned up too!

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