With Hurricane Harvey causing massive flooding down in Texas, it brings up the question of what happens if Swift Current happens to go under water. 

Denis Pilon, the fire chief and the director of emergency planning, says that the worst-case scenario would be if the Duncairn Dam breaks. 

“If the Duncairn Dam happens to break, the entire lower half of Swift Current will be flooded up to 15 feet high," Pilon said. "If it were to happen we would have about half-an-hour-to-an-hour notice to get everybody to high ground. The good news in the case of Duncairn Dam breaking is that the water would recede within 24 hours.”

Pilon said the chances of such an event are slim.

“The possibility is one in a million,” Pilon said. "The dam is monitored very regularly and it's managed by professionals and is inspected on regular basis. The bigger risk, because it has more of a chance of happening, would be if there was heavy rainfall for an extended period, and the dam overflowed.”

Pilon talked about how they would notify people that they are in danger. 

“We would immediately start notifying everybody through social media and over the radio. We would drive up and down the streets and turn on the PA system to let people know. We would go door to door if we had to. We would try and get the message out as fast as possible to try and get to high ground.”

Pilon said in the case of emergency evacuation that there are a few centres people can go to. 

“We have three centres that are designated as emergency-evacuation centres that we could move them to. But we don’t really make them public because we don’t want people going to the one, for example, in case the flood would affect two of the other centres and we wouldn’t want people going in that direction, so we announced at the time we open one of them where people are supposed to go.”

Pilon also has some advice on what people should do in the case of a flood.

“Just make sure that you have the availability of a backup prevention on your sewer because that is one of the worst places that water starts to come in and be prepared to get sandbags to place around your windows and doors as the water starts to rise. In the case of an evacuation, you should have supplies for 72 hours.  In the case of an emergency, we are going to get everybody out but we can't get everybody out immediately so we recommend that you have supplies like canned food, water, medication and those types of things so you can survive in your home on their own or with family or friends for 72 hours. We also advise people, if they do happen to self-evacuate to go someplace the emergency services know, so they know that you're out of your home.”

Pilon added that they have a training exercise that they do once every year. Later this week that will update people on some new systems and train some new people to fill key positions.

If you have friends or family around Houston being affected by the flood, the news room would love to hear from you. You can contact us at 306 773 6397 or scnews@goldenwestradio.com.