City officials and some London homeowners are still dealing with the aftermath of this week’s heavy flooding and record-breaking rainfall.
The City of London issued a public advisory Wednesday asking residents to avoid flooded areas like Gibbons Park, the North London Athletic Fields, Northridge Fields and Fanshawe Quarry golf course.
The advisory also says residents should be cautious around the river and keep children and pets away from flooded areas since water is flowing faster than normal and surrounding areas are soft and slippery from the mud.
“Last week of course we had the remnants of the hurricane (Beryl) plus some other rainfall, so the ground is already saturated,” said Ashley Rammeloo, director of water, wastewater and storm water at the City. “What would normally absorb a lot of the rainfall during these summer storms, the capacity just isn’t there.”
The tail end of hurricane Beryl wreaked havoc on Rock the Park outdoor music festival in Harris Park over the weekend. Then on Monday, London broke a century-old weather record, with a total of 59.3 millimeters of rainfall across the city within a day. The previous record, set in 1923, was 45.2 mm.
After the record-breaking rainfall, the London area was hit with more heavy rain on Tuesday, bringing a total of 104 mm of rain to the city.
Since the start of the week, the city has received well over 250 calls from residents about the flooding.
“If they’re experiencing flooding, they can report that to the city at service.london.ca. We do use that information to inform infrastructure upgrades, and to make sure that residents have all the information on our basement flooding grant program,” said Rammeloo.
Chris Craigan, a manager at Winmar London, said this is the worst flooding he’s seen in his 20 years on the job.
“Our office took on over 268 claims on Monday. Usually, the next day you start catching up but unfortunately another storm front came in on Tuesday,” Craigan said. “This is the largest volume (of calls) we’ve taken on in our history.”
The conditions in Harris Park have resulted in the cancellation of the Great Outdoors Comedy Festival scheduled for this weekend, featuring comedian Bill Burr among others. As of Wednesday, parks along the Thames River and Thames Valley Parkway are still flooded.
For more information about basement flooding and flood preventative devices, London residents can visit london.ca/flooding.