Historic flooding in Stoney Creek spurs legal claims
Some lakeside residents blame the city as well as Mother Nature for swamped basements
HISTORIC FLOODING in Stoney Creek is prompting legal claims against the city by swamped homeowners who believe a weekend lake-storm surge is only partly to blame.
The legal claims from lakefront homeowners on Church Street come as council prepares to consider a pitch from Stoney Creek Coun. Maria Pearson to declare last weekend’s ice storm a “disaster.”
The proposal, if ratified by council next week, would allow residents with flooded basements to apply for up to $1,000 in “compassionate grant” money without any admission of liability from the city.
But $1,000 won’t go far to help Hugh Dick cover the “unprecedented” damage at his distinctive blue twostorey home — photos of which circulated widely online after a roiling Lake Ontario appeared to engulf his property at Church Street and Green Road.
“We’re still figuring it out, but if I had to estimate I’d say there is $50,000 worth and counting,” said Dick, who sustained damage to three cars parked in a low-level garage and an elevator in his home. “I will certainly be seeking some help from the city.”
City risk management head John McLennan confirmed he has received three “overland flooding” claims so far from the Church Street area. He said adjusters would visit the area and evaluate the claims.
But he noted storm surge damage from waves flowing over private breakwalls would not qualify as a city responsibility. Firefighters moved several residents to safety on
Sunday and reported dangerous flooding at more than 20 homes in Stoney Creek and Winona.
Residents reported five-metre-high waves swamping breakwalls and crashing into homes located 10 metres or more from the lake.
One of Dick’s neighbours, who did not want to be named, showed The Spectator a newly-cracked, 30-centimetre-thick concrete breakwall and scattered paving stones she said were tossed around by the waves.
Dick acknowledged the weekend storm surge was the biggest he has seen in seven years living on the lakeshore on Church Street. But he and some of his immediate neighbours maintain that their private rock and concrete breakwalls protected their homes from the worst of the crashing waves.
They say water nonetheless “poured” over a municipal storm sewer pipe immediately east of Dick’s house. The pipe and the road allowance it occupies, unlike neighbouring private properties, does not have a protective wall shielding Green Road from the lake.
The water funnelled down Green Road, into low-lying front yards “and then into our basements,” according to Maggie Thibodeau, who spoke to The Spectator in front of a full bin of ruined drywall and furniture.
Her front yard was a sea of mud Wednesday and several waterlogged chairs and couches sat on the driveway in front of the full garbage bin.
Thibodeau said she called the city repeatedly on the weekend to “plead” for help clearing storm drains under the rapidly pooling water, to no avail.
She said residents in hip-waders eventually managed to pull up the storm grates and clear out debris. “The water started draining away within the half-hour,” she said.
Pearson, the councillor for the area, asked city staff Wednesday to look into resident concerns about the overflow pipe property and the possibility of walling off the municipal road allowance near the lake.
City water director Andrew Grice said he would look into the complaints, but added he wasn’t sure whether building a breakwall over sewer infrastructure was
possible or practical.
He said city workers were out checking storm sewers on the weekend, but noted it can be a “struggle” to drain low-lying areas near the lake, especially in the midst of a storm surge.
He pointed to ongoing challenges last year in the low-lying beach strip, where water routinely pooled in the road because of high lake water levels.
It’s not yet clear how many flood victims were affected citywide by the heavy rains or surging lake water.
Grice said the city call centre received about 35 calls related to flooding, but some may have been repeats.
The city’s compassionate grant program offers a maximum $1,000 per resident affected by whatever weather event is classified as a disaster.
It has been used almost exclusively for basement flooding, but the city also broke with precedent in 2015 to pay out close to $90,000 to residents with frozen pipes during a frigid winter.
The city has handed out more than $5.3 million over 12 years via the program.