Burlington, Ont., cleans up after 2 months worth of rain hits within hours

Burlington is cleaning up after two months worth of rain fell Monday night as thunderstorms swept through much of southern Ontario.

After highways were flooded and motorists were left stranded, police described the situation as "absolutely dangerous."

Several sections of the Queen Elizabeth Way and Highway 407 were closed due to flooding around 7 p.m., wreaking havoc for motorists and cottage-goers heading home from Ontario's Civic Holiday long weekend.

OPP Sgt. Kerry Schmidt called the situation "absolutely dangerous."

"I've been hearing reports of water, you know, up to the tops of vehicles, people are actually swimming from their cars," he told CBC News Monday night.

The catch basins were inundated with water and some of them were clogged, according to Schmidt.

At the height of the storm, much of Burlington — from Appleby Line to Brant Street, both north and south of the Qeen Elizabeth Way (QEW) — was under water, according to Halton police. 

"What happened was a number of the creeks and small little rivers throughout the city just got inundated with the amount of water we received, and so unfortunately they had nowhere to go and a number of them crested at the same time," said Staff Sgt. Stephanie Jamieson.

Rob Born, who was trapped in his car until a tow truck came to haul him out, kept his sense of humour and said the flood saved him a shower.

"The water came in up to the bottom of the steering wheel, so I'm pretty much soaked right now." he told CBC News Monday night. "Never had that happen before. You see it on TV all the time."

Environment Canada issued a series of severe thunderstorm warnings and watches for much of southern Ontario Monday afternoon.

It has not been a great Civic Holiday weekend for commuters in the region.

The flood-related closures on the highways came less than an hour after the Burlington Skyway bridge reopened.

The Toronto-bound lanes of the bridge were closed for four days after a dump truck with its bucket raised slammed through the bridge on Thursday, severely damaging its structure.

In addition to highways, some residential streets in Burlington experienced flooding.

A number of homes were flooded. Many families opted to spend the night in a hotel and wait until Tuesday to assess the damage. 

Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang

Burlington, Ont., cleans up after 2 months worth of rain hits within hours

Dengan url

http://topstorinfo.blogspot.com/2014/08/burlington-ont-cleans-up-after-2-months.html

Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya

Burlington, Ont., cleans up after 2 months worth of rain hits within hours

namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link

Burlington, Ont., cleans up after 2 months worth of rain hits within hours

sebagai sumbernya