“Week from hell”

City crews fixing the drain at Elsie Ritchie's house

There’s been a second incident at the home of 88-year old Elsie Ritchie who was visited last week by Toronto Mayor Rob Ford during a tour of homes damaged by stormwater and raw sewage in the massive storm on July 15th.

Birch Cliff News was alerted in an email from Ritchie’s daughter, who is on her way home to BC after spending a week cleaning up because her mother is not covered by insurance.

When we visited today, Ritchie’s neighbour, Carolyn Flear, confirmed there was another problem:

“From what I gather….on Sunday is that all of a sudden everything backed up again and they couldn’t use the toilets or the bathroom or the shower, anything.”

Sewer full of rocks and sand

The drain was scoped by plumber Bill Barber (The Drain Man) who said it was full of debris that “had to come” from city property on Kalmar Avenue:

“First off we couldn’t see to much because the drain was full of sand and rocks.  You can’t see underwater in that environment.   We waited for the water to go down and went back in.  We could see the drain was 75% full of sand and rocks.”

So many trucks on Kalmar Avenue today it was almost impassable

Repairs under way

Today, the street in front of Ritchie’s house is crowded with construction equipment and city workers trying to make it right.

An excavator was digging up the driveway and construction crew leader Nello Vacchiano said a joint had shifted on the old clay pipe and they were replacing the broken section.

Ritchie watched it all from the front porch and said: “It feels like the week from hell.  I’ll be glad when it’s all over.”

Ritchie said she doesn’t know if the workers showed up to her house in response to a call from “Bill the Drain Man”, a call to 311, or if it had something to do with the mayor’s visit, but she has a theory:

“The Drain Man told me that it must have  been because of Mayor Ford being down here.  He said I don’t know why but you’re the number one priority emergency and that’s why we’re here.”

Grateful to the mayor

Ritchie said she feels “very grateful” to Rob Ford:  “I think he’s a very good man, the way he’s going around and checking everything out.  He told us to get the valve.”

Elsie Ritchie inspects her new back-water valve

Ritchie’s $1,800 back-water valve has been installed but won’t be activated until the city workers are done in the driveway.  She said plans to apply for a subsidy under the city of Toronto’s Basement Flooding Protection Program.