2013 - Year In Review

Not my photo.

2013 was an interesting year. Work was kind of rough. At least for my boss, Sid. First off, his son, Joseph, found another job. Then one of his two delivery vans was stolen. We had to make do for over a month with only one van until he replaced it.

Then we were having problems with our wet towel raw material supplier. That led to us losing one of our big wet towel clients. Sid's 3 week holiday to China in November became a problem for Peter who was just hired. He didn't get enough training and things pretty much fell apart.

As for local news... for me the big three news items were the Rob Ford circus, the summer floods and the December ice storm.

I have to admit I was a Rob Ford supporter. But his neverending antics started to turn me off. Even after his admission of taking crack cocaine I still supported him. But things just got more and more weird. His constant rants to local media topped off by his lewd remarks regarding a staffer as well as the refusal of just about every council member to recognize his authority as mayor did it for me. I'm not sure if I can support him in the future.

The floods after record rainfalls was another big news item here in Toronto. The lower Don Valley Parkway was flooded on two occasions stranding a number of unwary motorists who dared venture into the muddy waters. A GO Train heading north out of downtown even got stuck in the rising water. The stranded passengers had to be rescued by boat.

Of course many homes were flooded by the rain too, my parents' included. In our case it may have been a blessing in disguise. It forced me to clean all my junk out of their basement and either toss it or sell it. We had it renovated and updated adding a second bathroom. It looks much better than before.

Lastly we had the worse ice storm in local history. Freezing rains just before Christmas brought down tree limbs and the power lines beneath them. Nearly 300,000 customers in Toronto lost power from anywhere from a day to nearly a week and a half.

My parents were one of the lucky customers. They only lost power for about 12 hours. My sister had it a bit worse. She probably lost power for 2-3 days. I know a few others who lost it for longer. Personally, I was very fortunate. I never lost power at all.

Still it was weird driving around certain areas of the city in the pitch black at night. On top of that you had to deal with the numerous intersections which had no traffic lights. Also, side streets were littered with fallen branches, some huge. I had to clear my parents' deck of maple branches which had fallen from their neighbour's tree the morning after the rainfall.

Thankfully we were able to celebrate Christmas dinner at my parents' home unlike many others who were struggling to keep warm in sub-zero temperatures.

Here's hoping 2014 will be less chaotic.

Record-Breaking Rainfall of 2013

Not my photos - Flooding on lower DVP. GO Train stranded. Ferrari on Lower Simcoe St.

Last Monday, July 8th started out like any other Monday in July for most of people in Toronto. But, by the end of the day it was a different story to say the least.

From the late afternoon (perhaps around 5:00 p.m.) onwards the skies opened up and a deluge of water fell. So much, in fact, that it broke a single day record for rainfall that had lasted nearly 60 years (since October, 1954). That was when Hurricane Hazel dumped 121 mm of rain on the city in one day. More rain actually fell in a few hours than during the whole day during a hurricane if you can believe it.

After all was said and done 126 mm of rain was recorded at Pearson International Airport. According to a report on TheStar.com (Toronto Star online) a mind-boggling 90 mm of rain fell in a two hour period. 90 mm!! Statistics on TheWeatherNetwork.com say the average rainfall for Toronto in the month of July is 67 mm. We nearly doubled that in one day.

Before the rain had started I had just finished my deliveries and was back at the office. My co-worker Steven was there too finishing some stuff up. We didn't notice the rain at first since we were inside and there aren't any windows. But we have security cameras hooked up and happened to glance at them at one point. That's when we saw the downpour. At first I thought it was hail, it was coming down so hard.

After sitting in the office a while longer I thought I'd take a stab at going home. My car was parked less than 10 feet away from our front door, but the rain was coming down so heavily I dared not step outside. I waited for a bit then Steven came out to go home. After seeing how much it was raining he too retreated inside to wait it out.

When the rain finally let up a bit we ran outside. It was still coming down quite heavily, but we didn't want to wait any longer. Only a few feet from the door the water in the parking lot had rising dramatically. It was something we hadn't noticed before. I couldn't even walk around the back of my car without stepping into fairly deep water. I was so happy I didn't park on the opposite side of the parking lot this day or I'd have to swim there.

On the way to my parents' place I noticed surface flooding in many places along the roads. It was pretty crazy. There were mini rivers all over the place.

As it turned out the southern end of the Don Valley Parkway flooded again (the same thing happened a few weeks ago during another heavy rainstorm). Several vehicle were stranded in what now was an extension of the Don River. The same thing happened with a GO Train bound for Richmond Hill. Some passengers were stranded onboard for 11 hours while waiting to be rescued by boat.

Of course there were the power outages. The worst hit area was Etobicoke. It is supplied power by the Richview and Manby transmission stations both of which were flooded. I heard one of them had to pump out the equivalent of 15 swimming pools worth of water (not sure how large a pool that would have been).

My friends Lawrence and Taku (who live close together in the affected area) were without power for around 40 hours I believe. That means no air conditioning in the stifling heat and humidity and no power for your refrigerator. The city had a special, extra garbage day for the citizens in that area to throw out spoiled food.

The TTC was also messed up due to flooding and lack of power. It took many people hours upon hours to get home because of that. Since the subways weren't running people either had to hoof it or call a friend for a lift. But, of course, the streets were completely chaotic because of the water and power outages. So driving was extremely trying.

Most of the subways were up and running the following day. All but the west end (Etobicoke again). 70 shuttle buses transported passengers from Jane to Kipling stations along the Bloor/Danforth line for much of Tuesday because of flooding.

Water Main Break

Late last week I was walking along the sidewalk on the south side of Eglinton near Yonge when I saw a small fountain of water shooting out from the ground. I thought it was odd, but didn't think too much about it. It wasn't a lot and it just flowed into the sewer on the street.

Well that small leak turned into a torrent by Friday evening. When I returned from hockey early Saturday morning Eglinton east of Yonge was blocked off. The water shooting out of the ground there flowed onto Eglinton and the overflow went south on Yonge past Sudan (the set of traffic lights).

I was a bit concerned that my condo might be affected in some way. But, when I got home my water was still on and I didn't have any other issues. After putting my stinky hockey gear in the washing machine I headed downstairs to take some photos.

By this time the police had blocked all traffic going both east and west on Eglinton between Yonge and Holly. There were a few news vehicles there too. I stayed on the north sidewalk and snapped some photos. No one bothered me there.

I overheard the TTC subway was flooded. The buses had to be diverted down Holly while they looked into fixing the problem. Surprisingly, the street was opened not long after.

I didn't hear anything else regarding the break until Monday when I was doing deliveries up Yonge for Sid. Dr. Soll's office (in the new Minto south tower, a minute or so from my building) was still without power. They had some extension cords hooked up to the hall outlets in the building to supply their computers and other things. But their unit was basically off the grid. Hopefully it didn't take too long for Hydro to restore their electricity.