Close call for two men in flooded elevator during heavy rain in Toronto

A man rescued from rapidly rising waters in an elevator that flooded during an intense rainstorm in Toronto said the thought of his teenage daughter kept him going as he grappled with the fact that he was moments away from death. Klever Freire and a co-worker were pulled to safety just in time late Tuesday after water from a flash flood poured into an elevator in the basement of the office building where they had spent the day at work. Freire said the harrowing half hour during which they were trapped felt much longer, adding water had reached their necks by the time police officers reached the scene and pried open the doors. “I was mainly thinking about my daughter,” Freire told reporters on Wednesday, hours after the ordeal. “I was supposed to go pick her up two hours earlier to go for a movie, but I wasn’t able to ... (the experience) was a little bit eye-opening in terms of what matters.” Freire said he and his friend were initially unable to call for help, since the flooded elevator was trapped in the basement and the emergency phone on board was not working. The two men wound up punching out a ceiling panel, enabling them to gain a cellphone signal that allowed them to call 911, he said. Police were then forced to tread water outside the elevator as they forced the doors open with a crowbar, he added. The downpour that barely registered on the outskirts of Toronto dumped up to 72 millimetres on some regions in roughly a two-hour period, warning preparedness meteorologist Geoff Coulson said. The deluge put unusual strain on police and firefighters,.