Updated flooding statistics

Flooded home on Kalmar Avenue with the familiar dumpster out front

Here are some updated numbers from the City of Toronto on the extent of basement flooding in Ward 36 over the last five weeks.  The statistics were provided by Lou Di Gironimo, General Manager of Toronto Water.

Following the storm on July 15th, Toronto Water received 300 basement flooding calls from Ward 36, an increase from the 196 calls reported on July 18th.

Toronto Water says the increase is a result of the public reporting flooding incidents after the fact, which was encouraged by the local councillor and the City and repeated in media stories.

There was a less severe storm on July 31st, which generated seven basement flooding calls to Toronto Water.

Homeowners flooded twice

After the storm on August 10th, there were 67 basement flooding calls reported to Toronto Water.  Out of the 67, eleven calls were from homeowners who also flooded on July 15th.

That makes the total number of official flooding complaints 374.

The city’s total is similar to the number of calls reported by the office of Ward 36 councillor Gary Crawford, which reports it received 345 calls but some of them were from homeowners calling more than once.

According Di Geronimo, all of their calls were attended to by city staff. Depending on the situation, a variety of work was performed at individual homes , including “plunge internal or external clean outs; “snake from internal or external clean outs; CCTV (camera).”