Severe storm floods Birch Cliff

Torrential rain flooded streets, backed up sewers and destroyed basements in Birch Cliff on Sunday, leaving homeowners with a terrible mess to clean up.

The rain also caused a mudslide on Danforth Avenue between Warden and Birchmount, forcing the closure of the westbound lanes of Danforth Avenue.

Photo credit: Hannah Korbee

An estimated 55-75 mm of rain fell in Scarborough between 1:30 and 2:30 pm, according to meteorologists at The Weather Network.

There was flooding in low-lying areas of Birch Cliff, including Crescentwood Road, where homes back onto the Scarborough Bluffs.

Homeowners scramble 

If that wasn’t bad enough, the sewers on Crescentwood also backed up, flooding basements with up to two feet of raw sewage.  Homeowners say they were left scrambling to salvage whatever possessions they could from their basements.

 Basements being torn up

Firefighters were called to the scene and contractors have already started tearing up floors and carpets and tearing out drywall.  Flooding is so widespread that the local Rona store at Warden and Eglinton is running out of shop vacs.   Birch Cliff residents have reported bumping into neighbours in the rubber boots aisle at Mark’s Work Wearhouse because their basements are filled with raw sewage.

In addition to the flooding, city councillor Gary Crawford says trees are down and power is out in parts of Ward 36. His office has received a number of calls about flooding and says it is responding on priority basis.

Hydro reported Sunday night that 4,000 homes in Scarborough are still without power.

In nearby Whitby, 17 people were sent to hospital after lightning struck a tent at the Whitby Ribfest.

Meanwhile, some photos have been posted from Birch Cliff to Twitter, which you can see below.