Innisfil, Ont. is currently dealing with clean-up after parts of the town were hit with flooding during the weekend winter storm.
The town’s mayor, Lynn Dollin, told Global News that all roads in the municipality have re-opened and that water is down in all of the ditches.
“The bad news is that we have pockets … particularly Belle Air Beach Road in Belle Ewart, that is going to require some extensive repairs,” Dollin said.
“We are already looking into that, and we have a team working on assisting residents to make sure they’re able to get in and out of their driveways.”
Other areas of the town have also been chronic flood plains, Dollin said, including parts of the 13th Line, Gilford Road and Park Road, as well as the Buchanan Street and Tall Tree Lane area.
“In some cases, where the water was up over the road … the foundation under the road can wash away,” Dollin said.
“In some cases, people’s driveways were compromised.”
Crews are out and making repairs, but it’s unclear exactly when those will be completed.
“We had an area, again, in Belle Ewart, the south end of Alcona, a targeted area that had sewer back-up in a number of homes,” Dollin added.
“We’re still investigating that because many of these homes on the lake are not year-round homes – they’re seasonal residents.”
According to Dollin, flooding has been an issue in some areas of the town for a long time, but this weekend was near the top in terms of severity.
“Longtime residents say it occurs every spring, but of course, having major rain events in January is not normal, so that just compounds the existing problem,” she said.
Dollin said the town has a number of projects underway for a more long-term fix. Next week, there will be a meeting about drainage problems on Park Road, and the town is also working on a creek diversion program for the Belle Air Beach Road area, which was hit hardest this past weekend.
“Working on the long-term, full fixes is something we’re committed to,” Dollin said.
“But again, we’re talking millions and millions of dollars, which is why we need the other two levels of government to partner with us.”
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