Residents, councillors concerned about climate in wake of flash floods
More than 77 mm of rain fell on Ottawa in a matter of hours Thursday
It took four pumps — one sump pump, one gas pump and two submersible pumps — for Andrew Oliver to keep his basement dry.
Even though he rents his apartment on Karn Place in Alta Vista, Oliver purchased the pumps himself.
Then he ran them for hours on Thursday, desperately trying to clear the water.
"We're stuck with four pumps going and trying to keep up with it," Oliver told CBC yesterday afternoon. "This is the first year that the rain has been the worst."
A severe thunderstorm hit Ottawa Thursday afternoon, bringing hail, power outages and flash floods to a wide swath of the city.
Emergency responders closed roads in areas that experienced the worst flooding, as some drivers were forced to abandon submerged vehicles in the street.
Left thousands without power
About 77 millimetres of rain fell on Ottawa in a matter of hours, according to Environment Canada. That's more than any other Aug. 10 on record, but surrounding regions saw even more, receiving between 80 and 110 millimetres.
At the storm's peak, Hydro Ottawa reported 24,000 customers without power.
Mycah Katz was practicing a drag performance in the basement lounge of his condo building when the power cut out.
It was the first time since he moved to the building, near Baseline Road and Clyde Avenue, that he'd experienced an outage.
Katz said climate change and related extreme weather have him "very concerned."
"I think people want to do things, but they don't really know what, " he said. "It might be too late."
City must become 'more resilient,' councillors say
River Coun. Riley Brockington said after the storm, his ward resembled the Italian city of Venice.
"The streets became canals with such a heavy downpour," he said. "Our city's rainwater infrastructure cannot handle such volumes."
Many residents reported flooded basements, garages "infiltrated with water," and other damage to their homes, Brockington said.
It was partly because the bulk of the rain fell during a tight 90-minute window, he said.
"This feeds into continued conversations about how the city can become more resilient, how our infrastructure can be renewed," said Brockington.
Knoxdale-Merivale Coun. Sean Devine agreed that funding for infrastructure and emergency services must reflect a new climate "reality."
"It seems like we have to keep on writing a new playbook, because now we need to add a new chapter to our emergency playbook, which is dealing with sudden flash floods," Devine said.
Alta Vista Coun. Marty Carr said older areas of the city such as her ward, where several main streets were shut down Thursday, require infrastructure upgrades and an updated sewer system.
But those updates won't be a silver bullet, she said.
"They do help minimize the impacts of severe climate events in the community," Carr said. "But they're not able to mitigate them completely."
With files from Guy Quenneville, Charlie Brockman and Nicole Williams