This is a developing story
More than 90,000 households are without power in the Toronto area after heavy rainfall hit the city on the afternoon of July 16. Floods have led to widespread road closures, with many vehicles submerged in water on the roads.
At least 14 people were
rescued by the Toronto Fire Services (TFS) on city roads, including from their vehicles. The fire service said one person was rescued from inside their vehicle, and another from the roof of a car.
“TFS has been responding to an extremely high number of rescues related to flooding and elevator entrapments,” The TFS
said in a post on X.
The Don Valley Parkway, which connects the northern part of the city into the downtown area, was closed due to flooding, Toronto Police said, as was Lakeshore Boulevard, which runs along Lake Ontario. Many cars have been stranded on the road, with some of them partially submerged in water.
The Toronto Transit Commission
said several of its subway stations were closed, and many streetcar and bus routes were out of service.
Toronto Hydro
said it is responding to widespread outages and is working with Hydro One to restore power.
An outage map provided by the company shows there are just over 99,000 customers without power as of 4 p.m., local time. The number of affected customers previously reached over 136,000 in the early afternoon.Hydro One
said that it is investigating the issue, and that it will provide updates and an estimated time of restoration as more information becomes available.
Hydro One is asking its clients to avoid calling their dispatch centre or reporting outages online to help keep lines open for public safety hazards and emergencies.
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow told reporters at a press conference that Toronto Emergency Management (TEM) is monitoring the situation and that emergency services have not been impacted so far. “Please be safe. Don’t drive on flooded roads and stay away from streams and rivers, shorelines,” she said.
She said the city is “massively investing in the state of repair so that there is less flooding going forward,” adding that the city is $26 billion short over 10 years to fix aging infrastructure and mitigate the consequences of events like flooding.
The Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA)
said that “extremely heavy rain” was forecasted for the City of Toronto, Vaughan, Richmond Hill, Markham, Mississauga, Brampton, Halton Hills–Milton.
“Some of TRCA watersheds have already received 10-70mm of rain over the 3 hours. As a result, some low-lying areas have been flooded,” the TRCA said.
TRCA recommended residents avoid all shorelines, rivers, and streams within the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), warning against higher flows and changing water levels. It also said to expect pooling of water in low-lying areas, especially in those with poor drainage.
“Additionally, the ground is saturated, and any additional forecasted precipitation will run off, leading to rising water levels in water bodies and watercourses within the TRCA jurisdiction,” the authority said.
Environment Canada had earlier issued a rainfall warning for the GTA and much of southern Ontario, saying the rainfall could be up to 125 millimetres for parts of the GTA.
The rainfall warning has been lifted, but rain could persist into the evening and after midnight, with a 30 percent chance of showers and risk of thunderstorms, according to Environment Canada. The Canadian Press contributed to this report.
