65,000 additional Calgarians cleared to go home

As of 10:40a.m Sunday morning, the City of Calgary and Officials have lifted the mandatory evacuation for some areas of  Roxboro, Inglewood, Bowness, Bridgeland, Chinatown, East Village, Elbow Park, Rideau, Erlton,  Stanley Park, Sunnyside, and large portions of downtown.

As a result, an additional 65,000 Calgarians will be allowed to return home, but Mayor Naheed Nenshi advising as residents to follow safety guidlines which can be found here on the City of Calgary website.

The city says the community of Hillhurst (1,568 homes), all homes except 1834 and 1836 Broadview Road, is open and this comes in addition to the residents of Discovery Ridge, Quarry Park, Riverbend, Douglasdale, Deer Run who are returning home.

The official map with colour coded zones as of 12:00pm Sunday, yellow areas are those which are open to residents able to go in and self-asses the damage. To see the map, click here.

However, those in yellow zones with the ability to return home after 1:00pm Sunday afternoon are being urged to follow city guidelines for re-entry which can be at information centres in every community.

Nenshi stresses the city is still under a state of local emergency and there are about 10,000 residents who cannot yet return home. The Mayor adds, the situation has improved, but not as well as expected.

Calgarians are still being urged to put off unnecessary travel in the city; downtown Calgary, which was also evacuated on Friday, will likely be shut down until the middle of next week. Most major hotels in the CORE will remain closed until further notice.

While water levels are starting to recede on the Elbow and beginning to stabilize on the Bow, there is still a chance of a surge, so people are still being told to stay away from riverbanks and other flooded areas.

The Bow River has dropped to about 1450 cubic metres per second, while the elbow river has fallen to 290 cubic metres per second to the same levels we saw in the 2005 flood.

Enmax crews managed to restore power to 63-hundred homes in just a few hours Saturday night.  There are still 27-thousand homes still without power.

Calgary’s water quality remains good. There is no need to boil water as the water from your tap is clean and safe to drink. Calgary’s water treatment plants are fully operational, however systems continue to be challenged to meet demand for water.

As a result, a city-wide mandatory outdoor water restriction was issued this morning under the Water Utility Bylaw for the city of Calgary. Effective immediately and until further notice, the use of tap water outdoors is suspended. The following outdoor activities are prohibited:

-Washing outdoor surfaces, exterior building surfaces, sidewalks, driveways, or walkways of any sort.

-Watering of lawns, gardens, trees and shrubs by any method; also ensure that sprinklers on timers are turned off.

-Using water for filling outdoor decorative features, fountains, pools or hot tubs.

-Using water for construction purposes such as grading or compaction.

There are exceptions to the Water Utility Bylaw. They include:

-Washing outdoor surfaces for health and safety reasons for childcare facilities, food and beverage establishments and kennel and animal care facilities.

-Washing of vehicles to follow health and safety regulations.

-Watering of plants, shrubs and trees offered for sale.

-Businesses that have a license to operate exterior window washing services and car washes.

Calgarians can continue to use rain water captured in a rain barrel to water outdoors. The City of Calgary continues to restrict non-essential water use for its own operations.

In addition The City of Calgary continues to request that Calgarians, businesses and regional customers in Strathmore, Chestermere and Airdrie continue to restrict indoor tap water use.

-Limit toilet flushing.

-Limit showers to five minutes or less and keep baths shallow.

-Hold off on doing laundry.

-Only use your dishwasher if absolutely necessary and you have a full load.

-Turn off taps when brushing teeth or shaving.

-Don’t wash your vehicle

There’s also some good news for teens. The mayor says Grade 12 students in both the public and Catholic school boards will be exempt from their finals.

There are some exceptions to that rule, he suggests check with the particular school boards. This also doesn’t include charter schools.