We need surfaces to absorb water
I was wrong. As I approached St. Clair Ave. the rain started again and did not let up. I ultimately found shelter under the railway bridge that crosses St. Clair just downhill from Caledonia Rd., where I stayed for the next hour or so.
It’s startling how quickly heavy rains can form fast running rivers and most of the curb lane was soon covered in brown, speeding water. A car stopped underneath for a spell and the water hit its tires with such volume and velocity it flowed onto the sidewalk.
While waiting there I had time to watch Toronto traffic. Routinely drivers sped from the Caledonia traffic light west, going well over the speed limit despite the on going torrent. Each one would hit the inchesdeep water under the bridge and hydroplane their cars, braking hard to try to maintain control. Luckily there were no crashes.
Though as substantial in size and heft as the almost 90-yearold rail bridge there is, it ulti- mately proved to be only a partial shelter as the wind whipped rain underneath it. Hot and humid earlier, the temperature dropped considerably and, soaked to the bone, I began to to shiver.
It surprised me that even on a summer evening my body could get cold so quickly, something that the homeless who live on the streets and in the parks must know too well.
I was happy to know this was temporary and home wasn’t too far away. The concrete wall holding up the bridge was still radiating the day’s heat and I found that pressing myself up against it quelled the shivers a bit.
When the rain subsided I went uphill to see where the flow was coming from. Some water was from St. Clair itself, but much of it was coming from an expansive truck yard and used car lot just east of the bridge. These are the kinds of hard surfaces the stormwater runoff fee that Mayor John Tory’s executive committee shelved last year targeted.
By making it cost more to have paved, hard surfaces, the fee would have created an incentive for permeable surfaces that would absorb water in place, rather than creating rushing rivers like we saw across the city Tuesday evening.
The short sightedness of Tory’s move, and the vast amount of runoff our paved surfaces creates, was evident as I made my way south towards home. A few blocks away the Davenport Rd. rail underpass was flooded, and two cars and a TTC bus were stranded in the water. Though a foolishly brave cyclist and a pedestrian were crossing through the dirty water, I retreated and went south along Symington Ave. where I found the rail underpass by Dupont St. was also flooded.
The raised sidewalks there made it possible to get by and around the corner I saw that the rail underpass on Dupont St. was flooded too. Once home I saw that underpasses and more across the city had flooded. This was a major event.
At each flood I saw dozens of drivers approach the water with intent to cross though abandoned cars and flashing tow truck lights were present. Some turned around when people yelled at them or heeded the lone lady on Dupont who was directing traffic away from the water, but many decided to plow through anyway.
On Symington a guy in a jeep even drove around a police car complete with flashing lights, causing foot high waves that nailed the poor cab driver trying to retrieve something from his stranded car. Apart from harming their engines, these people risked hitting uncovered utility holes. Between this and the earlier hydroplaning on St. Clair, my already low faith in the skill and decision-making abilities of Toronto drivers dropped again.
Also unsettling is when presented with a way to mitigate this kind of flooding, city council, led by our current mayor, decided not to act. With an increase in climate changerelated storms predicted, all of this will become more routine than it already is.