Thousands flee in Brantford
Grand River flooding forces Brantford to declare state of emergency, with the city ordering immediate evacuation of several neighbourhoods
BRANTFORD — Thousands of people were forced to flee their Brantford homes until at least Thursday afternoon as the city declared a state of emergency and evacuated three neighbourhoods along the Grand River due to flooding.
The flooding crisis —which comes amid milder temperatures, rainfall, melting snow and ice jams releasing along the river — is the worst the city has seen in more than 20 years, said Brantford Mayor Chris Friel.
“The levels of ... water is something most people have not seen in this community for a very, very long time,” he said at a news conference Wednesday morning, pointing to an ice jam in 1996 in which the city did not move residents to safety.
“The height of the river — it is shocking to everyone to see that.”
Six Nations also declared a state of emergency Wednesday afternoon because of possible flooding and unusually high water levels, which were expected to peak overnight.
In Brantford, around 2,200 homes with as many as 4,900 people were urged to
vacate the areas of Holmedale, Old West Brant — surrounding Princess Anne Park and Cockshutt Park — and Eagle Place and head north out of the city’s floodplain.
The City of Brantford tweeted the closures and evacuations are expected to be in place until at least noon Thursday.
Premier Kathleen Wynne visited Brantford Wednesday evening to offer support and thank emergency workers.
Temporary shelters were set up at Woodman Community Centre and Assumption College gymnasium, where residents could stay warm, have something to drink or to eat and use the washroom.
Pets could be brought to the evacuation centres, where they would be picked up and taken care of by the Brant County SPCA.
Rachel Tyrrell was one of dozens of residents to show up at Woodman with her two sons, their cat Kiwi and dog Walter early Wednesday afternoon, having fled their home near Grand River Avenue, where they left behind other pets, including birds and a rabbit.
She had walked eight-year-old Liam to school at Lansdowne-Costain that morning only to find out it had been closed along with a handful of others due to potential flooding.
Tyrrell brought her boys home, packed up blankets, pillows, puffers, food and an outfit each before piling into the car.
They no longer have rental insurance, so Tyrrell said she also gathered whatever electronics she could to sell.
Outside the community centre, Liam and his three-year-old brother ran around while the family let the dog and cat out of the car to go to the bathroom and get fresh air.
“We’re ninja warriors,” Tyrrell said she told her boys. “We’ll get through it.”
John Dacewicz, 62, arrived at Woodman with only his income tax information in hand after he got a knock on his door around 9 a.m. from emergency crews.
Some people stayed behind in his Holmedale neighbourhood, but when Dacewicz heard hydro and natural gas were being shut off at his place and hundreds of others, he decided to take a city shuttle bus to the community centre.
“Hopefully my Gibson (guitar) will survive,” Dacewicz said.
In addition to schools, roads were closed along with all city trails along the river, some local daycares and the Brantford Charity Casino, which is right on the river.
Friel urged people to stay away from their homes and the affected areas until the city advised them otherwise.
“This is not a viewing spectacle,” he said.
“This is a dangerous situation that remains dynamic.”
Once the water recedes, the city will need to conduct structural reviews of the Lorne Bridge, Veterans Memorial Parkway and the pedestrian bridges, said Friel.
In Six Nations, Fourth Line West was closed from Seneca Road to Bateman Line as well as Mohawk Road between Third Line and Fourth Line. The Six Nations Emergency Control Group was expected to continue monitoring water levels around Chiefswood Bridge to determine if it needed to be closed.
Dwight Boyd, director of engineering at the Grand River Conservation Authority, said river levels are expected to remain high well into Thursday dependent on ice jams.
The current situation is a unique one given the extreme cold weather in late December and early January that caused some sections of the river to see 1.5 metres of “clear, blue ice” combined with recent warmer temperatures and rainfall.
“If ice wasn’t in the river, we wouldn’t be seeing this sort of flooding,” he said at the news conference.
In addition to Brantford and Six Nations, other communities along the river were also seeing flooding due to ice jams, including in Cambridge, where some roads were closed, and Haldimand County.
Haldimand County staff were preparing Wednesday in case homes needed to be evacuated because of flooding caused by ice jams in Brantford.
On Tuesday, the Canadian Coast Guard’s ice breaker cleared out the ice blockage at the mouth of the Grand River leading into Lake Erie and several kilometres upstream to help prevent flooding.
Near Orangeville, the search continued Wednesday afternoon for a three-year-old boy believed to have been swept overnight into the Grand River after a crash.
The child was reported to have slipped from his mother’s grip and been carried away downriver.