The city of Edmonton experienced major flooding due to a storm, with roads being closed, damage to city facilities, and power outages — and many viral clips have been captured of the disaster depicting its severity.With the storm occurring on Friday night, some of the casualties include trees, damaged traffic signal poles, flooding through building drains, and entire intersections.In fact, one road was flooded so badly that fellow Edmontonians captured on camera people commuting via canoe instead of car.Several of the roads affected include Yellowhead Tr. under the CN overpass at 82 St., which remained closed on Saturday as crews cleaned up the floodwater, but is now open. .Another clip depicts an overpass in Edmonton, with cars stopped and stuck in the flood with one smaller car being almost completely engulfed by water.Other clips show what could be contributing to the floods — a manhole cover erupting with water contributing to even more adverse flooding.A clip from the Telus World of Science (TWS) shows the inside building drain exploding with water, and similar experience occurring at what looks like a retail store. Among the buildings which also had to be closed due to flooding were Peter Hemingway Aquatic Centre, the main pool at Grand Trunk Fitness and Leisure Centre, and Heritage Amphitheatre, all of which were closed until further notice.Even Edmonton's Commonwealth Stadium was affected, with a drain bursting and covering an area of the stadium in water, though it reopened Saturday. .According to Epcor, 13,000 customers had lost their electricity due to the storm, which according to their outage map, has since been restored as reported by CBC News. Another road affected by the flood, 97 St. for southbound traffic from 111 Ave. to 118 Ave., which was shut down due to downed trees, but has since been opened.In reaction to the storm and the cascading infrastructure damage, some on X are blaming what they call the city's poor upkeep of its drainage and sewage systems."Yes, the weather in Edmonton is out of the ordinary. There is no denying that. But we cannot ignore the role the city of Edmonton has played in contributing to poor drainage, flooding, and sewage problems," stated Eva Chipiuk on X. ."Why? Because we rarely seem to hear about these issues by the mayor and councillors.""Instead, we hear about climate policy, bike lanes, accessibility debates, LGBTQ issues, and most recently, Alberta independence. Whether you support or oppose those topics isn’t the point," Chipiuk claimed. "Municipal government should be relentlessly focused on the basics: safe and clean roads, effective drainage, clean water, sewage systems, and public safety.""Right now, too many of those essential services are falling short. That isn’t just disappointing — it is an embarrassment for a city of Edmonton’s size and resources. And Calgary is not far behind."
