WINDSOR, ONT. -- Hundreds of south Windsor homes experienced basement flooding after heavy rainfall in late August and the Ward 1 councillor wants to know why.
Coun. Fred Francis quizzed city engineer Mark Winterton Monday afternoon about why the rainfall on Aug. 28, 2020 seemed to affect one part of the city — in the Mount Royal and St. Clair College region — more than other parts.
“Residents also incurred substantial loss of personal property in many cases, the losses experienced will be far greater than what insurance will cover,” said Francis during Monday’s council meeting.
Winterton confirmed roughly 400 homes experienced basement flooding as a result of the rain, which in that part of the city measured 130 millimetres on the rain gauge.
“It really did take a larger brunt of it,” said Winterton, acknowledging the affected cluster.
Winterton says the city has already started investigating the cause and has ruled out any sewer failures or blockages that could have contributed to the problem. He says they’ve already gone manhole-to-manhole and are looking at downstream causes in other jurisdictions for the possible cause as well.
Francis asked a council question requesting a full documenting of the event to determine the cause. He also requested the city identify all needed improvements and elements of the sewer master plan that can be applied to reduce future incidents of flooding in this area.
“Even without a smoking gun, as you say, what we’re going to do is look at how we can leverage this into the sewer master plan that was recently approved by council,” said Winterton. “There are some recommendations that we think we can bring forward fairly quickly that might help the residents in this area.”
A report will be forthcoming “as soon as possible,” said Winterton.
