Prepare for more flooding, Saint John warned

Recent flooding shows Saint John needs to be better equipped to deal with the effects of climate change, according to the city's commissioner.

Storms like Hurricane Hannah, which dropped 145 millimetres of rain, and tropical storm Danny, which brought more than 100 mm of rain, are becoming more frequent, Paul Groody, the city's commissioner of municipal operations, told Saint John council on Monday night.

Saint John firefighters were called to pump water from more than 50 homes after tropical storm Danny hit the city in late August.

Groody said he has been inundated with calls from people around the greater Saint John area who are still dealing with Danny's aftermath.

"We need to understand the nature of the storm and its impact across the city," Groody said. "We need to communicate with citizens whose homes and businesses were affected to understand what exactly occurred in each case — and that process is well underway."

Groody said the city should consider purchasing a water-diversion system for the Glen Falls area. The system would capture water that flows down the hillside and re-route it to another part of town to reduce the chance of flooding.

"This diversion system would actually capture this water, [and] use the energy in the water to transfer it to a much larger drainage basin, which we don't believe would have much effect on that drainage basin," Groody said.

Groody said he is putting calls out to families affected by tropical storm Danny to determine where the damage "hot spots" are in the city.

A similar process is being undertaken in Moncton, where city officials are trying to understand why roughly 160 homes were flooded when Danny drenched the city on Aug. 29 and 30.

Moncton city officials and the Department of Public Safety's Emergency Measures Organization are asking people to report their flood damage to Service New Brunswick