Cars are partially submerged in flood waters in the Don Valley Parkway following heavy rain in Toronto on July 16.Arlyn McAdorey/The Canadian Press
The water pouring into Ishan Singh’s basement apartment on the west side of Toronto on Tuesday morning rose to about 2½ feet in the span of an hour. When the rain subsided, Mr. Singh was wading through waist-high water to collect items from his bedroom, where his bed was floating.
Mr. Singh and a roommate rent out the main floor and basement of a house on Lakeshore Drive in Etobicoke. The area was particularly hard hit by flooding and power outages after a massive storm dumped about 100 millimetres of rain on the Toronto region in just a few hours, making it the fifth-rainiest day in the city’s recorded history.
He said that when the storm hit, it seemed like the water was coming in from everywhere and their sump pump couldn’t keep up.
“It was flooding at a rate at which the pump was barely slowing it down. We thought it would at least hold the water where it was, but it just kept on rising,” he said.
Filmed July 16, 2024 by Aditya Kanamuri on Lakeshore Drive in Etobicoke after massive rainstorm caused flash flooding in Toronto.
The Globe and Mail
Mr. Singh was among many residents in Toronto and surrounding communities cleaning out flooded basements Wednesday and sorting through soaked furniture and other belongings after the flooding. City and utility repair crews were also working to bring the city back to normal after the rain turned major highways into rivers, caused widespread power outages and disrupted public-transit service.
The region’s two major electrical utilities, Toronto Hydro and Hydro One, reported that around 5,000 customers remained in the dark on Wednesday morning, mainly in Etobicoke and Brampton. At the height of the outages on Tuesday, about 167,000 customers in Toronto were without power.
Toronto Fire Captain Deepak Chagger said the service responded to more than 950 calls on Tuesday – double the daily average. He said emergency requests included more than 50 elevator rescue calls, 50 water calls and more than 20 people who needed rescuing from cars and buildings because of the flooding.
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow told a news conference on Wednesday morning that the city is considering incentives to help residents prepare for future storms, such as getting them to make improvements to their properties to reduce the risks of flooding.
“Weather events like this are going to occur more frequently because of climate change and we must take action to build the resiliency of our city and work to mitigate the impact of these storms,” she said.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who was in Toronto on Wednesday for an unrelated event, also spoke of the need to ensure governments are investing in infrastructure to guard against the effects of climate change.
The flooded parking lot at Grand Touring Automobiles, a luxury car dealership on Dundas Street.Melissa Tait/The Globe and Mail
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However, Caitlin Roberts and her neighbour say they already made improvements to their adjacent Etobicoke homes, such as sump pumps, back valves and waterproof barriers, after being flooded in 2013. But when the skies opened up on Tuesday, nothing could slow the water.
Both of their basements flooded during the storm. Ms. Roberts said she had three sump pumps going at the same time, but when the power went out, they just had to sit back and wait.
“We’re tired, we’re exhausted,” Ms. Roberts said, as she squeezed between overturned pieces of furniture in her basement, where the water level reached three inches high before receding.
On Wednesday, Ms. Roberts and her husband stayed home from work to deal with the aftermath and watch their son, whose nearby camp was cancelled because of a power outage.
Craig Stewart, vice-president of climate change and federal issues at the Insurance Bureau of Canada, said Tuesday’s storm was relatively similar in size to the 2013 flood that resulted in $1-billion in insured residential and commercial damage. Although it’s too early to estimate the actual cost of the damage, he said that this time around it could be in a similar range.
“We know the city infrastructure is vulnerable. We need to be doing more to invest in resilience,” Mr. Stewart said.
He said provincial and federal governments need to play a bigger role in supporting municipalities in improving infrastructure and protecting businesses as the climate crisis intensifies.
“We don’t feel enough is being done now by other orders of government to add support to cities that are on the front lines,” he said.
Michael Leering, director of environment and business excellence at CSA Group, a non-profit that works on improving public- and private-sector standards, said it’s important to recognize the impact these severe weather events have on the personal lives of those affected, such as damaged furniture or lost memories.
CSA Group has encouraged municipalities to rethink urban planning and strategy to become resilient in the face of flooding and its impacts.
On Wednesday, Mr. Singh and his roommate were sitting at a picnic table on their front lawn with their computers open to calculate how much it would cost to replace their soggy furniture, which was strewn across the lawn beside them.
Mr. Singh said his landlord’s insurance will likely cover the home’s water damage, but he estimates that he lost about $4,000 worth of furniture in the flood. His roommate, Sai Teja, said he will have to replace most of his clothes because they were contaminated by the dirty flood waters.
The roommates moved into the house four years ago and have never experienced anything like this. Now, Mr. Singh said he’s worried about what could happen the next time an intense storm sweeps the region.
“I mean climate change, right? This is only going to get worse,” Mr. Singh said.
Drone footage of the Don Valley Parkway shows the extent of flooding after torrential rain passed over Toronto on Tuesday. Cars were stranded and motorists backed up in both directions of the freeway to the east of Toronto's downtown.
The Globe and Mail