The town of lakeshore continues to roll out its flood defense action plan.
The municipality held an information session Tuesday evening at the Atlas Tube Centre to inform residents on how to prevent future flooding by taking advantage of the backwater valve subsidy program.
Lakeshore council authorized the extension of the program until Dec. 15.
Council will also provide a $300 subsidy for the disconnection of eavestrough downspouts, and the installation or upgrade to sump pumps.
“We have in essence responded to the demands from our residents” said Mayor Tom Bain.
More than 150 people attended Tuesday’s meeting. Many of the residents said they are grateful for the programs, but also feel the town should be doing more to ensure homes are not flooded.
“Hopefully we're going to get around to both us saying hey we both got to do something to make this not happen again” said resident Erin Bates, whose home was flooded during the last two major rain events in the area.
More than 200 millimetres of rain fell on Windsor and the surrounding areas over a 24-hour period on Aug. 29, washing out major streets and flooding more than 6,000 homes.
That followed a flooding event at the end of September 2016 the caused $108-million in insured damage to homes in Windsor-Essex.
Dr. Blair Feltmate, the Head of the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation at the University of Waterloo, was the guest speaker at Tuesday’s meeting, and he spoke on the growing threat of basement flooding.
He said the amount of precipitation that falls annually in the country is up about 18 percent compared to a hundred years ago.
“We also have aging municipal infrastructure, aging housing infrastructure and when you bring all these factors together it contributes to flooding” said Feltmate, who encouraged residents to take advantage of flooding prevention programs.
