A family says they were forced to escape through a window in their Etobicoke apartment after their unit was flooded overnight due to a broken watermain.
“I stepped off the bed and my feet were in the water up to the ankle already,” Romaine Powell told Global News on Thursday.
Toronto Fire Services said the apartment, located at 311 Dixon Rd., had a watermain outside of it break just after 2 a.m., which sent a river of water into a the three-bedroom lower-level unit.
It took crews almost two hours to shut the water off, all the while the unit kept filling with water.
Once he realized what was happening, Powell immediately went to his five-year-old twin stepdaughters, who were asleep, and got them out with the help of his girlfriend.
“I went through the window. She passed me the first child and I grabbed her,” he said.
“The main thing was to get the kids out, then to get ourselves out.”
For Powell, who moved to Canada from Jamaica five years ago, the damage to his apartment is hard.
“People have dreams and this is smashing all what you have been trying to get to,” he said.
“I have no words, I’m clueless as to what to do with myself right now. It’s already hard enough.”
The family said they have tenant’s insurance. But they said they are concerned about where they will stay while the claim is processed
The Toronto and Region Conservation Authority issued a flood watch following heavy snow and rainfall on Wednesday.
The weather system resulted in as much as 20 millimetres of precipitation through parts of the Greater Toronto Area watersheds.
The advisory was issued Wednesday evening at 10 p.m. and was in effect until 8 a.m. Thursday.
Officials said the above freezing temperatures overnight in the region caused water levels to rise near rivers and low-lying areas resulting in hazardous conditions.
Areas of concerns included the Don River at Dundas and Todmorden and the Don Valley Parkway and Bayview Ave near the Don River.
The public is urged to exercise extreme caution around all bodies of water and avoid driving on flooded roadways or in low-lying areas and underpasses.
A GoFundMe has been created to help the family recover.
–With files from Jamie Mauracher
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