GRAND FALLS-WINDSOR, NL – A popular park in Grand Falls-Windsor was the most recent victim of Mother Nature.
Gorge Park, located on Scott Avenue along the Exploits River, suffered flooding after a steady rainfall the night of April 29.
“This is not totally uncommon,” said Grand Falls-Windsor Mayor Barry Manuel. “We have had incidents of spring flooding in Gorge Park in the past. The infrastructure in the park was built with potential flooding in mind, so that it is able to withstand more than your normal amount of flooding.”
The Town of Grand Falls-Windsor issued a warning the afternoon of April 30, advising residents to stay clear of the river and any drains or culverts in the area.
“We wanted to make sure people weren’t going to do anything foolish,” said Manuel. “That they would be curious, but cautious.”
Manuel said the impact from the most recent rainfall and flooding remains to be seen, but reiterated that because of the low elevation and proximity to the river that flooding isn’t unheard-of for the park.
“We would have to wait until the water recedes before we could do any kind of assessment on the boardwalks, the gazebo, the playground equipment, and things like that,” he said.
Manuel is concerned about calls for rain in the immediate weather forecast.
“It’s certainly going to have an impact on the situation,” he said. “It’s not what we want at this point, you also have a large amount of snow and ice that’s melting in the country around here.”
Manuel said unseasonably high temperatures helped contribute to the rising water level of the Exploits River. The mayor also said it would take an extreme event for the community to flood, noting the difference in elevation between Gorge Park and the residential area above.
“It’s just the river banks that are always at risk,” Manuel said.
The golf course just outside of Grand Falls-Windsor also experienced some flooding in the parking lot and on the course itself, but Manuel said the building was built on an elevated piece of ground to purposefully avoid flooding.
Badger Mayor Ed Card said the Badger River was quite swollen from spring runoff and the recent rainfall.
“It was very close to the top of the river banks, so we’ve been keeping a close eye on it and making sure residents in the area are aware of the dangers of the river,” he said.
Card shared Manuel’s concerns over the upcoming weather, but said the river would have to rise quite a bit before it could reach any residential area.
“It will probably come in on some property lines, but most of the houses in the area because of the history of flooding here have their houses elevated,” he said.
Both Card and Manuel said they are in contact with Nalcor and are receiving constant updates on the situation.
Bishop’s Falls Mayor Bryan King said there is always concern when the region receives heavy rainfall.
“We didn’t have any damage or anything,” King said of Bishop’s Falls. “We came away unscathed actually, we were pretty fortunate.”
King noted that the river was high and did touch some residents backyards, but said there were no problems with town infrastructure.
“There was no damages reported to us,” he said. “Everybody came away pretty good, fortunately.”
