A severe storm has left many of Toronto’s streets flooded, including the Don Valley Parkway, and about 53,280 customers without power, according to Toronto Hydro.
Crews are working on the outages but do not have an estimated restoration time, Toronto Hydro said. Residents are asked to avoid downed wires and call 911 if they see any.
At its peak Tuesday afternoon, 167,000 customers were without power, Toronto Hydro said.
Environment Canada issued a rainfall warning for the city on Tuesday morning with a risk of thunderstorms continuing in the afternoon and evening. The warning was no longer in effect by the early afternoon, however there are still a number of major traffic and transit disruptions to be aware of.
No significant rainfall is expected for the rest of Tuesday, the City of Toronto said in a news release Tuesday afternoon.
The city said it received more than 700 calls to 311 about basement flooding.
Photojournalists across Toronto captured dramatic images of rescues and swamped cars as the city came to a standstill in flood-prone areas.
The Don Valley Parkway (DVP) — which runs alongside the overflowing Don River in the city’s east end — is blocked in both directions due to flooding. Municipalities across the GTA have also warned residents to avoid flooded areas.
Toronto Fire said they rescued 12 people from flooding on the DVP, including one person who was plucked from their car’s roof.
Crews have responded to an extremely high number of calls related to flooding and elevator entrapments, Toronto Fire said.
Up to 110 millimetres of rain was expected to fall on Tuesday, with rainfall rates of 40 mm/h possible at some points, Environment Canada said.
“Heavy downpours can cause flash floods and water pooling on roads. Localized flooding in low-lying areas is possible. Watch for possible washouts near rivers, creeks and culverts,” the rainfall warning said.
The Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) issued a flood warning on Tuesday afternoon, saying that the total rainfall expected could create “hazardous conditions” near bodies of water, including slippery and unstable river banks.
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All shorelines, rivers and streams in the GTA should be considered dangerous as heavy rainfall could result in higher flows, erosion and rapidly changing water levels, the (TRCA) said.
“Please exercise caution if you must be around any bodies of water, rivers or streams as well as the Lake Ontario shoreline,” the TRCA said.
A severe storm has led to flooded streets in Toronto and transit disruptions, including at Union Station. CBC’s Lisa Xing has the latest on how the storm is affecting commuters across the city.
‘Storm on top of storm’ dumped rain
David Phillips, senior climatologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, said the system that brought the rainfall was “unique” from a meteorological perspective.
It was actually a series of separate storms that consecutively drenched the GTA, but particularly the city of Toronto, Phillips said.
“There was a line of storms from London to the west part of Toronto that lined up like a parade, like jumbo jets on the airport tarmac. And there was storm on top of storm coming in one after the other, dropping their load of precipitation,” he told CBC News Network.
David Phillips, senior climatologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, says he’s not surprised by the amount of rain that has hit Toronto recently as the country deals with a new reality of extreme weather.
About 100 millimetres of rainfall was registered at Pearson International Airport in Mississauga, while roughly 76 millimetres fell in the downtown core of Toronto within a few hours, according to Phillips.
“It was the intensity. We saw 30 millimetres of rain in 30 minutes. That rivals what you would see in a jungle kind of situation,” he said.
It has already been an unusually wet spring and summer in much of the GTA. From April 1 until yesterday, the region was drenched in roughly 166 per cent of the rainfall it would typically see in that same period, Phillips said.
“The ground is saturated and river courses are full,” he added.
“This is the new reality. It used to be river flooding, now it is urban flooding … So you end up with power outages, you end up with intersections flooded, roads flooded. It is not a surprise to see Toronto like it is.”
Mayor urges people to be careful amid flooding
Speaking on Tuesday afternoon, Mayor Olivia Chow said the city is “massively investing in the state of repair so that there is less flooding going forward.”
“Please be safe. Don’t drive on flooded roads and stay away from streams, rivers [and] shorelines,” she said.
The city’s wastewater facilities have not been affected by the storm, Chow said.
Asked why the Don Valley Parkway wasn’t closed earlier to drivers to prevent cars from driving through flooding roadways, Chow said she doesn’t know.
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow says that because the city was able to upload maintenance of the Don Valley Parkway and the Gardiner Expressway to the province, it can now add $2 billion of funding toward the TTC, roadways, hydro, sewage management and other infrastructure projects. However, Chow says the city is still $26 billion and over 10 years behind in infrastructure work.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, speaking from the premiers’ meeting in Halifax, said he will reach out to Chow to find out what the city might need as it recovers from the storm.
“Thank God everyone’s OK,” Ford said.
The relentless downpours caused significant flooding in some parts of the city, especially in low-lying areas close to Lake Ontario.
Near the corner of King Street W. and Atlantic Avenue W., a stretch road historically prone to flash flooding, abandoned heavy construction machinery and a pickup truck were seen half submerged in water.
Several inches of water also accumulated in areas of Union Station, the city’s biggest transit hub, with water from inside cascading down exterior staircases.
TTC trains are currently not stopping at Union. Staff are “actively pumping” water out of the station, the city said.
The scenes were reminiscent of the major flood that hit the city in July 2013.
Slobodan Simonovic, professor emeritus of civil and environmental engineering at Western University, says many cities in Canada are woefully behind when it comes to infrastructure that can withstand flash floods.
Entire GTA hit by rain system
Peel police warned drivers that downpours were causing manhole covers to lift out of place. They urged drivers to be cautious and use the full headlight system on their vehicles.
Toronto Pearson International Airport said a section of Convair Drive, near the airport in Mississauga, was closed due to flooding. However, there was no flooding at the airport and there are no flight disruptions reported.
People travelling to Pearson are advised to map out their route to avoid any road closures and give themselves extra time to arrive safely, the airport said.
Tuesday was the fifth wettest day ever recorded at Pearson, with the airport recording 97.41 millimetres of rain. The severe storm also broke the previous record for daily rainfall on July 16, 1941, when 25.9 millimetres of rain fell at the airport.