Mississauga continues cleanup after record weekend rainfall

Mississauga is continuing to clean up after record rainfall hit the city over the weekend, causing flash flooding that is prompting city officials and experts to call for expanding stormwater infrastructure to better prepare for the future.

The storm that affected a wide swath of southern Ontario and the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) marked the second time this summer that the city has been forced to respond to rapidly worsening extreme weather. 

Fire crews rescued 27 people from the water over the weekend, including stranded drivers and pedestrians, and eight people who were trapped in elevators that stopped working due to power surges or water flowing through the elevator shaft.

In a news release issued Monday, the city said rainfall amounts varied across Mississauga, with some areas of the city seeing as little as 6.2 millimetres and the hardest-hit areas receiving some 170 millimetres from Saturday to Sunday. 

Helen Noehammer, the city's director of works, operations and maintenance, said the stormwater system is designed to handle once-in-10-years weather events, though the weekend storm was much more severe.

"This was probably right now looking [to be] at least a one-in-100-year event," Noehammer said Monday. 

"What we're seeing is climate change and the impacts of climate change, so we're seeing these type of rainfall events happening more often and I think the difference ... is that they're much more intense."

The areas near Dixie Road and Dundas Street, Cooksville Creek, Streetsville, Malton, Lisgar, along with stretches of highways 401, 403 and 410 and the airport were all hard hit by the heavy rain. Some roads were closed as a result of localized pooling.

Mississauga resident Jason Brown, who lives near Cooksville Creek, was waiting for nearly a month to finish renovating his kitchen when his garage — where he had stored brand new kitchen appliances and cabinetry that were set to be installed Saturday — flooded.

"Everything was underground and now it's all ruined," he said.

Brown, who lives in a condominium complex on Kirwin Avenue that backs onto Cooksville Creek, said his family was trying to keep the water out but couldn't keep up with the pace of the rain.

"The system they have, it goes to the creek and when it goes to the creek and the creek is so high, the water won't go out. It just surges back," he said.

"Everything comes up the drain and there's no stopping it. There's nothing you can do," he said.

The rainstorm aftermath was "disaster" for many others across the city, said Coun. Alvin Tedjo.