Two-day deluge swamps local roads, basements
Major roadways submerged after significant rainfall pounds area
Roads were swamped, basements were inundated, and vehicles were stalled in watery streets as Windsor-Essex endured more rain on Tuesday — less than 24 hours after being dumped on Monday night.
Windsor police urged the public not to drive “unless absolutely necessary,” as many road surfaces had become submerged in several inches of water. Across the city, high-traffic streets were rendered impassable.
According to Supt. Brendan Dodd, at least a dozen major routes were affected as of 4:30 p.m., including the E.C. Row Expressway, Jefferson Boulevard, Riverside Drive East, Tecumseh Road West, Dominion Boulevard and most of College Avenue.
“Do not drive through standing water on roads or in parking lots,” Windsor police implored. “Many reports of stalled out vehicles in flooded areas.”
The City of Windsor said at the height of the afternoon rain that the situation was being closely monitored and “all storm water management systems are working as designed.”
But the high volume of rain continued to fill gutters and low-lying roadways, making driving anywhere a risky proposition.
Record amounts of rain fell in the space of six hours between Monday evening and Tuesday morning, only for the deluge to begin again on Tuesday afternoon. Environment Canada issued a severe thunderstorm warning for a second time just after 1 p.m.
“Radar and observations indicate 80 to 150 millimetres have fallen between LaSalle and Tecumseh over the last four hours,” the weather office said at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday.
As of Tuesday evening, Environment Canada had recorded 160 mm of rain in LaSalle, on top of the 125 mm recorded there the day before, for a total of 285 mm in 20 hours.
“It’s pretty significant,” Environment Canada meteorologist Arnold Ashton said. “This area of Southwestern Ontario is known for some pretty epic rainfalls. But this one is significant.”
As of 6 p.m. Tuesday — by which point Environment Canada estimated that 90 per cent of the storm had passed — the City of Windsor had recorded 170 mm of rain at the Grand Marais Drain.
Early Tuesday, Essex Region Conservation Authority issued a flood warning for all of WindsorEssex. The agency said the warning will remain in effect until at least Wednesday morning. “Rainfall amounts are surpassing storm drain capacities for areas throughout the western regions of the city and town.”
Even before Tuesday’s alerts came, the ground was already saturated from previous precipitation. Environment Canada recorded a total of 57 mm of rainfall at Windsor Airport on Monday. But double or even triple that amount was reported by other locales — 100 to 150 mm, especially in Tecumseh and Lakeshore.
“There was a lot of variability,” Environment Canada meteorologist Geoff Coulson said Tuesday morning. “What we had was a series of localized, intense thunderstorms, moving in a train from south to north.”
“The areas that were right under where these storms kept tracking — they got the biggest amounts.”
In comparison, Environment Canada’s observation site in Harrow received a paltry 14 mm Tuesday morning.
By Tuesday afternoon, commuters were struggling to find alternate routes on river-like streets.
Businesses and institutions were also affected. Devonshire Mall closed all stores for the day due to drainage problems. St. Clair College cancelled all evening classes and apprenticeship sessions, as of 5 p.m.
The emergency room at the Met campus of Windsor Regional Hospital was shut down Tuesday due to flooding and all elective surgeries were cancelled indefinitely.
“We have water all over the place on the main floor,” hospital CEO David Musyj said as the rain continued to come down late Tuesday afternoon. “It’s coming up through our drainage system. Our parking lot (near the ER) must have three feet of water and it’s just coming through the door.”
Emergency surgeries were still taking place, while patients already in ER were either being transferred to the Ouellette campus or discharged from the hospital.
“It’s not impacting our in-patient areas, but on the main floor we have diagnostic imagining, pharmacy, patient food services. We were able to deliver meals,” said Musyj, who described the flooding as nothing like he’d ever seen.
Patients were advised to go to the hospital’s Ouellette campus or Erie Shores Healthcare in Leamington for emergency care.
Production at Fiat-Chrysler’s Windsor Assembly Plant was derailed for several hours because parts and afternoon shift workers got caught in gridlock traffic and water leaked into a few spots in the plant. The afternoon shift started at 3:30 p.m. but by 5:30 p.m. workers were sent home, said LouAnn Gosselin, spokeswoman for FCA Canada. The midnight shift was expected to start on time and production to resume on schedule Wednesday, she said.
The Town of Tecumseh went into flood watch mode — activating all pump stations and sending work crews to clear storm drains starting Monday night.
In a release Tuesday, the town described the weather situation as “another unprecedented rain event” — similar to the rainfall of September 2016.
According to the municipality, 150 mm came down in the space of six hours between Monday night and Tuesday morning alone.
The September 2016 storm brought 175 mm in six hours, followed by 195 mm in 12 hours.
Dan Piescic, the Town of Tecumseh’s director of public works, said this most recent rainfall also qualifies as a “100-year storm event.”
“It overwhelmed both the storm and sanitary (sewer) systems. We’ve got ponding of water on roadways,” Piescic said.
Reports of basement flooding were still coming in on Tuesday evening. Tecumseh residents dealing with water in their households were asked to fill out a questionnaire on the town’s website.
Piescic pointed out that the town subsidized installation of backwater valves for more than 500 residents after the September 2016 flood.
A stormwater master plan remains in the works, and the municipality has begun a $3-million program to improve inflow and infiltration removal in the sanitary sewer system.
“But to be perfectly frank with you, nothing can address an event like last year’s flood,” Piescic said. “It’s too massive.”
Piescic said he was out and about the municipality on Monday night until 1 a.m., monitoring work crews and making sure everything was being done that could be done.
“We’ve been unlucky twice,” he lamented.
Tecumseh Mayor Gary McNamara said in a release: “Unfortunately, these extreme weather events are a new reality and municipalities cannot install the types of systems required to handle this high volume of rain.”
Despite appearances, Environment Canada said the rainfall in Windsor-Essex has nothing to do with tropical storm Harvey and the catastrophic flooding in Houston, Texas.
What we had was a series of localized, intense thunderstorms, moving in a train from south to north.