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Supplied, City of Edmonton

In Edmonton, neighbourhoods built before the 1980s face a higher risk because their sewer systems were designed to only handle a one-in-10-year storm. In new neighbourhoods, the roads form a back-up system designed to become small rivers carrying excess water away from homes until there’s room again in the pipes.

Drainage officials are scheduled to give councillors an update May 27 on the work so far.

They started the mapping effort in fall 2014, when it took the Journal more than a month of lobbying just to get a map of which neighbourhoods would be studied first. At that time, officials said they didn’t know how the information would be released. Now Wyman says they’ll develop a plan this summer. By the end of 2017, all maps for vulnerable areas and a prioritization of solutions should be complete.

To share information with neighbourhoods in 2018, they’ll likely use techniques piloted in Mill Woods, where a committee of local residents follows the project in depth to offer advice and help spread information in the community, said Wyman.

“It has to be a conversation. We’re not going to publish something that says here are the riskiest neighbourhoods,” he said. “We want to build awareness. We don’t want to create anxiety. … We need to be very sensitive about personal information.”

Buying flood insurance

After the Calgary and Edmonton floods of 2013, residents across south Edmonton reported increases in their insurance premiums of sometimes up to 25 per cent. Heather Mack says the key is to shop around. More than 100 companies are licensed to sell property insurance in Alberta and unlike automobile insurance, every policy is different. Here are her tips:

• Talk with your neighbours to find out if they’ve had problems in the past.

• Ask a professional broker or insurance company what records they have for your neighbourhood.

• Run specific scenarios past your broker to see if coverage includes sewage coming out of the basement drain, storm water coming out of manhole on the street or rain pooling on the street and flooding into a basement window.

• Assess how much coverage you need by adding up the replacement cost of everything you own and your renovations.

estolte@postmedia.com

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