Riders were amused at first, then water got ‘higher and higher’
It was one of the most striking images of Tuesday night’s flood: a streetcar stuck under a tunnel as water levels rose inside it, above the seats, threatening passengers.
Merissa Tse, animation editor at Brown Bag Films, was among a half-dozen passengers heading west on King St. W. at about 11 p.m. when the streetcar failed to push through water under the bridge just after Sudbury St.
“I started noticing water gushing up from manhole covers,” said Tse, describing how the streetcar operator slowed down and hesitated before deciding to proceed through the tunnel.
“I’ve seen this place flood before and so I was thinking, like, this is not a good idea.”
Minutes after being stopped, the streetcar operator assured passengers everything would be fine and that he was calling emergency services for help.
Tse and other passengers had already started noticing water flowing inside the streetcar.
At first they thought it was “funny” and just kept moving through the car, snapping pictures to post on social media.
“But then water kept getting higher and higher, and it got really scary. I think I had a panic attack,” Tse said.
“At some point we were trying to balance ourselves on the very top of the seats. Everybody was screaming.”
By the time the water reached Tse’s chest (she’s about fivefoot-three), they had to find a way to get out.
The operator and one other passenger eventually managed to push open the front door and “we all had to dive in,” she said.
Outside, Tse said her shoulders were fully submerged.
“The water was very cold and black. It smelled awful, like sewage,” she said. “But we had to swim through it. There was no other choice.”
The TTC spokesperson, Stuart Green, said the TTC found “a quantity of human waste” inside the car when it was towed.
“This leads us to believe the floodwater was a combination of storm and sanitary sewer overflow,” he said.
Green wouldn’t say if the operator was at fault or if he would face any disciplinary action.
Tse said a number of cars were also stuck in the tunnel with their occupants apparently refusing to get out.
Tse took refuge in a nearby condo lobby. She took an Uber home.
“I’m still a little shaken up,” she said on Wednesday. “Had we not managed to get out of that streetcar, I don’t want to think about what could have happened.”
Laura Maitland was driving on Ennerdale Rd. in York when the quiet residential street turned into a “river.”
“I had already been driving through a lot of water, so I didn’t realize how deep it was,” Maitland said. “And then all of the sudden, my tires lifted up and the car just nosedived into it.”
The car began to fill with water. Maitland began pounding on the window with her cell- phone, trying to break the glass.
Within minutes, neighbours rushed to her rescue.
“Because I was on my driver’s side, I was able to push and they were able to push,” Maitland said. “But as soon as they opened the door, all the water rushes in, right?
“It’s like you see in the movies or on the news … there’s neighbours, they’re all holding hands to help me through the water to get onto the sidewalk.”
Maitland’s waterlogged car isn’t working, but she says she feels lucky and thankful.
“If the neighbours weren’t there, I don’t know how I would have gotten out of my car.”