In the Niagara Region, both the City of St. Catharines and the Town of Lincoln have declared a state of emergency.
In the past three weeks, both areas have faced three storms that dropped over 400 mm of rain, leading to significant flooding.
Rose Marie Simpell, 84, is taking action after her basement on Hanson Drive in St. Catharines was flooded.
“The city put this trench in here but I’m here digging it out because nobody ever comes and digs it out again,” Simpell says.
“Start at Linwell Road and do the sewers and the road, all the way up Hanson Drive because I’m tired of putting up with this,” she says in a message directed at the city.
Hanson Drive has been heavily affected by recent rains, causing many basements to flood twice.
“It’s been challenging and we got to be ready for it this upcoming weekend because we are expecting more rain. We need some sewers, we need some more infrastructure,” says Pat Gordon, another city resident.
During a news conference on Tuesday, Mayor Mat Siscoe mentioned that St. Catharines has faced three major storms since July 21.
WATCH MORE: Lincoln, Ont. declares state of emergency after historic flooding
However, by the second and third storms, the ground was already saturated and couldn’t absorb any more rainfall.
The mayor noted that while the city has invested in infrastructure improvements, future upgrades will need to accommodate heavier rainfalls.
He explained that no municipal infrastructure in Canada is built to handle precipitation levels like these storms bring. The scale and intensity exceeded even modern systems’ capacity.
The province has sent volunteers from Ontario Corps due to St. Catharines declaring an emergency situation. If it becomes a disaster zone, homes will qualify for assistance funds.
“So volunteers through that organization are going out into communities supplying resources and also it means that those municipalities are receiving some of that support through the Provincial Emergency Operation Centre,” Niagara West MPP Sam Oosterhoff says.
Oosterhoff shared that Niagara Region has received over $272 million in total provincial infrastructure investments during the last two years.
“If folks drive through Jordan for example, they’ll see the pipes going in the ground and there’s been recent upgrades and more work being done in Beamsville and St. Catharines … at the end of the day the sheer amount of water that came down, if it’s old infrastructure that isn’t able to meet that capacity, it’s very challenging,” he says.
The City of St. Catharines has set up a vulnerable assistance registry for eligible residents who need help removing water and waste from their homes.
For more information residents can visit the city’s website.
WATCH MORE: St. Catharines declares state of emergency after flooding
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