Ontario towns dodge flood
Heavy rain forecasted but never arrived
CHATHAM, ONT• The worst is over for flooding along the Thames River in this southwestern Ontario community.
The Thames River in Chatham peaked at 9 p.m. Saturday at 5.25 metres above normal, and had already come down 10 millimetres by Sunday morning, said Jason Wintermute, water specialist with the Lower Thames Valley Conservation Authority (LTVCA).
The peak — caused by as much as a month’s rain in a few days and melting snow — was between the highwater marks for the historic floods in 1968 and 1977, the authority said.
Chatham- Kent caught a break because heavy rain forecast for Saturday night didn’t happen, he said.
Flooding in the low- lying community is often caused by ice jams at the mouth of the Thames in Lighthouse Cove on Lake St. Clair, but that isn’t the case this time, Wintermute said.
Ins t ead, what he described as a “perfect combination of events” caused the Thames to spill over its banks in Thamesville and Chatham: dozens of millimetres of rain last week and a sudden jump in temperature up to 15 C that caused much of the deep snow in the watershed to melt.
Wintermute said flood infrastructure, including the flood diversion channel and Sixth Street dam and pumping station, worked “quite well” to prevent major flooding in south Chatham.
Chat ham-Kent Mayor Randy Hope said emergency and logistical efforts went according to plan, and he praised the efforts of emergency officials.
“Everything’s working as we predicted it should work,” he said Sunday. “We’re extremely pleased with everybody participating.”
A state of emergency and voluntary evacuation was declared for Thamesville on Friday, with residents urged to stay with family or friends.
Approximately 13 residents, including three children, were evacuated from low- lying areas of Chatham on Saturday, with emergency crews using rafts to reach some of them. Flooding was also reported in some downtown businesses.
Joyce Holmes went to stay with a friend in nearby Wallaceburg. “Everything’s up off the floor except my chair and chesterfield and washer and dryer, that kind of stuff,” she said.
Chatham-Kent-Essex MPP Rick Nicholls said he plans to ask the government what it can do to help flooding victims pay costs not covered by insurance, noting the damage could be in the tens of millions of dollars.
“Worst flooding that I can remember since ( I was) a young boy,” he said.