That was the message the city’s top civil servant gave reporters as emergency crews worked frantically to resolve power and transit outages across the city, homeowners confronted widespread property damage — and rain leaked through the ceiling at City Hall.
Environment Canada is calling for up to 125 mm of rain on Tuesday. There may be 40 mm of rainfall per hour.
Deputy Fire Chief Jim Jessop told reporters at city hall that Toronto Fire’s call volume was triple its normal hourly rate, and the service was rescuing people from cars and elevators.
While calls were coming in for flooded homes and apartment buildings, as well as alarms set off by water trickling into building control panels, he said the agency was prioritizing responses to life-threatening situations.
“There’s certainly going to be a lag time on response for non-life threatening calls,” he warned.
A security guard directs people how to get to the TTC after flooding affected some of the lower levels of Union station.
A number of motorists were stranded as the DVP was swallowed by the rising Don River.