Kristen Villebrun and Wendy Bush hoped they wouldn't have to pray for Chedoke Creek, but four years after they first raised alarm about the water's condition, they were part of an Indigenous full moon ceremony to do just that. About 50 people showed up near Princess Point on the dark and frigid Monday evening for the monthly ceremony, which was particularly special as it focused on Chedoke Creek. The body of water that runs into Cootes Paradise had about 24 billion litres of sewage and storm water runoff leak into it due to a gate being left open.
Feelings of overwhelming fear and anxiety hit Alicia Hennessey, Amanda Dunfield and Jennifer Moore every time a rainfall warning is issued for their area. The women are neighbours and live with their families on Stannus Street in downtown Windsor, N.S. — their homes three in a row. For years they've each dealt with repeated flooding caused by problems with the town's combined sewage and storm water system.
On Sunday, October 30, Vancouver woke up to the sounds and sights of rain. Some of it was pleasant, like the pattering on our windows. Others are less pleasant, like ankle-swallowing giant puddles popping around downtown Vancouver. Environment Canada has a rainfall warning in effect for Metro Vancouver, and we’re going to get up to 50 mm of rain today. Already, in the early morning, it’s starting to collect in puddles, making it hard to navigate the city as a pedestrian.
Seven homes on the Muscowpetung Saulteaux Nation, approximately 65 kilometres northeast of Regina, were recently evacuated after floodwater from a nearby stream moved in earlier this week. It came after over 100 millimetres of rain fell in the area late Monday and through the day Tuesday. Jim Pratt, an emergency coordinator for the First Nation, told CBC the heavy rain filled the stream with water. When it began backing up at culverts running underneath Township Road 210 — a gravel road upstream from Muscowpetung — it started running over the road. The road and culverts eventually gave way.
Heavy rainfall in the Kenora area has slowed the drop in the Lake of the Woods water level. Municipalities in the Lake of the Woods watershed struggled with heavy flooding in recent months. The Lake of the Woods Secretariat, in its most recent update, stated the lake's level remains above its 2014 peak, but is below the record level set in July 1950. With recent rainfall in the area, and forecasted precipitation in the coming days, the lake is expected to rise slightly before resuming its drop, the secretariat said.
With the help of volunteers, staff at Resilience Montreal were able to clean while still welcoming about 300 of their clients and serving them breakfast. "It makes a challenging operation more challenging still," Chapman said of Thursday's flooding. According to him, it was Resilience Montreal's fourth flood in the last three years. Eric Hammel, a resident of Montreal's Verdun borough, said his street has been flooded once a year for the last three years. "These are things you don't expect from a city like Montreal," he said. "It's stressful because you anticipate damages if things get worse."
Montreal's master plan for making the city greener and more resistant to the negative impacts of climate change got a boost Monday, with a $117-million grant from the Quebec government to help Mayor Valérie Plante realize her administration's 10-year climate action plan. Environment Minister Benoit Charette and the minister responsible for the Montreal metropolis, Chantal Rouleau, made the announcement alongside Plante at the Centre for Sustainable Development, the province's first LEED Platinum building, on Sainte-Catherine Street in downtown Montreal.
As recently as Christmas, it looked like California’s devastating drought could—if not fully disappear—at least be on track for serious improvement by spring. That’s no longer the case. California’s snowpack was promisingly high at the start of the year after Pacific storms in October and December delivered a round of heavy rains and deep snows. But it has since dropped below where officials hoped it would be for this time of year after those early-season cloudbursts turned out to be isolated events.
A Victoria County resident is speaking out about a road in his area that he said has been washed out since late November. David Stirling, 68, of New Campbellton spoke to the Cape Breton Post about the “ongoing” poor state of New Campbellton road, a 13-kilometre (km) stretch at the base of Kellys Mountain that he said is filled with potholes. “It’s been washed out since the 24th of November,” said Stirling. “It has two culverts running underneath the road and when they plug up, the water runs over top of the road. And of course gravel and water don’t get along together. Needless to say, the water wins and the gravel takes a hike.”
Some Nova Scotians in northern Cape Breton have been able to get around storm-damaged roads by boat, but in another part of Victoria County, others are still cut off and waiting for relief, after heavy rains and high winds battered the region last week. "It's very heartbreaking out here," said Bev MacAskill, who lives on Oregon Road just off the Cabot Trail. "We have no way to get out except by helicopter."
A heavy rainstorm is expected to hit the Fraser Valley, bringing 50 to 70 millimetres of rain, according to a warning from Environment Canada. Meteorologists call this type of rain pattern an “atmospheric river.” It’s caused by narrow regions in the atmosphere transporting water vapor outside the tropics. Once the vapor hits land, it releases in the form of rain or snow.
Untreated Hamilton wastewater was discharged into the harbour Sunday night after an equipment failure at the city's Woodward Avenue wastewater treatment plant. That day's heavy rains, which continued into Monday morning, led the plant to be overwhelmed with water. In those cases, the plant enters "bypass mode," during which some of the excess water is released into the harbour.
Prince Edward Island's Green Party is calling on the provincial government to immediately make residential water testing free. Opposition environment critic Hannah Bell says the costs of getting the tests done as often as it's recommended, quickly adds up. "Just for your basic water quality [test] which looks at bacteria in water, it's $95 plus HST, and if you want to add on chemical testing, it's another $45 plus HST," she said.
The Town of Tignish issued a boil water advisory on Friday, Sept. 3. The situation arose after the town’s chlorine system was hampered during Thursday’s storm, which brought record-breaking rainfall amounts to many parts of the province. That morning, some of the equipment in the town’s pump house malfunctioned, said Tignish Mayor Allan McInnis. The malfunction also caused one of the lines to erupt and flood part of the pump house. As a result of that damage, the town had to shut down its water system while a maintenance crew drained the water. After the water system was back online that afternoon, the crew noticed the chlorine system was no longer functioning properly.
Despite some heavy rains and an earlier than normal spring in Thunder Bay Ont., the Lakehead Region Conservation Authority (LRCA) is not forecasting significant flooding in the area. CEO Tammy Cook said despite recent rains, rivers in the northwestern Ontario city are experiencing water levels that occur about once every five years. "We aren't seeing any significant flooding at this time," she said. "We are anticipating up to another 20 millimetres overnight, but we still think that area water courses will remain within their banks," Cook told CBC News in an interview Monday.
