Heavy rain floods basements across Essex County, washes out roads

Several municipalities across Essex County were hit hard overnight early Thursday with residents primarily in the Essex and Leamington areas waking up to flooded basements and washed out roads.

“I know several areas across the county ended up way worse,” said Essex County Warden and Leamington Mayor Hilda MacDonald. “In Leamington, several people have been contacting us about water in their basement. My hydro was out and just came back on now this morning.”

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Residents were dealing with up to a metre or two in their basements with reports of septic tanks also backing up in people’s sinks.

Environment Canada reported significant rainfall continued throughout the early morning hours. Radar indicated the heaviest rainfall had fallen in an area from Amherstburg to just east of Harrow. As of 8 a.m., Harrow had reported 184.8 mm of rain since midnight.

Showers and thunderstorms were expected to continue throughout Thursday across the Windsor and Essex County area. Additional rainfall was expected into the early morning hours on Friday with amounts of another near 50 mm possible, the agency said.

As of 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, several roads across the county were closed either due to flooding, downed power lines or fallen trees.

“For flooding, this is the worst I’ve seen,” said Jeremy Krueger, manager of maintenance and operations for the County of Essex. “We are getting various reports of four to seven inches of rain.

“We have got multiple road closures with water over the road, downed power lines and fallen trees. A number of shoulders along the roads have been washed out as well. Water is also bubbling up from our manhole covers.”

He listed the southern end of Essex County as being hit the worst.

“Don’t drive around our road closed barriers and avoid driving over standing water if you can. You don’t know what’s under that water.”

Union Water Supply System issued a precautionary Boil Water Advisory for the town of Kingsville, asking residents until further notice to boil water for at least one minute before consumption, cooking or brushing your teeth.

The town of Lakeshore is offering filled sandbags for residents at risk of flooding. Residents are invited to pick up sandbags at the West Public Works Yard (1089 Puce Road) until 8 p.m. on Thursday night.

An up-to-date map of road closures can be found online at municipal511.ca. Additional updates will be issued as needed.

In the town of Essex, the majority of streets have flooded and are holding water, Mayor Sherry Bondy told the Star.

“It’s really bad,” she said. “Basements, of course, are flooding, and we even have some reports of septic backup in people’s shower drains, laundry drains, and even people’s toilets.

“There were reports of over seven inches of water in a short period of time, so it’s really hard for our systems to handle this.”

Town staff were out Thursday morning to check beach road pumping stations.

Bondy urged residents to exercise caution while driving to prevent hydroplaning and to stay away from downed trees and power lines. She also asked that residents avoid using water unnecessarily for laundry and bathing.

“All of our systems are interconnected, so that doesn’t help your neighbour and could force sanitary backup in your neighbour’s house,” she said.

“We’re doing the best we can and we will regroup after this to see where our problem areas are and where we need to go from there in terms of assessing drainage capacities.”

The Essex Region Conservation Authority as of 11 a.m. on Thursday was finding “widespread flooding throughout the region,” said CAO Tim Byrne.

ERCA has issued a flood warning in effect through Friday at noon with some areas reporting over 150 mm (six inches) so far having fallen.

Flooding has mostly occurred in several areas of Essex, Kingsville, Leamington, Lakeshore and Pelee Island, the authority reported.

“Fortunately our more developed areas of Windsor and Tecumseh were spared and received less rainfall,” Byrne said. “But our concern is several of the creeks and river areas (across the county) will not be peaking until later today.

“We are seeing all the rivers and creeks right now are already topped up. This system has come in and sitting over top of us, so they are predicting more rainfall. That doesn’t bode well.”

In his 38 years working with the conservation authority, Byrne described it as the “second-most widespread flooding” he has observed.

“This is not about one significant rainfall, but back-to-back rainfalls,” he said. “We are seeing isolated downpours occurring across the area.

“Public works are out in all municipalities dealing with their infrastructure. We are seeing many homes that are surrounded by water. With more rainfall forecasted, we are likely to see additional flooding, so that is a major concern.”

— with files from Star reporter Dave Battagello

Flooding at Erie St. N and Munger St. in Harrow August 24, 2023. (BRIAN MACLEOD/WINDSOR STAR)

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