Torontonians - how'd you make out yesterday?

[ids]

For those outside the GTA, Toronto was hammered with massive amounts of rain in a very short time, leading to flooding, power outages, etc.
Some pics here: http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/dramatic-photos-show-parts-of-toronto-underwater-1.1358806
According to http://www.680news.com/2013/07/09/heavy-downpours-happening-in-gta/

Environment Canada said 126 millimetres of rain fell at Pearson International Airport, beating the 121.4-millimetre record set by Hurricane Hazel in 1954.

The rain smashed a previous one-day rainfall record of 29.2 millimetres in 2008 and trounced the 74.4 millimetres monthly average for July.

My commute home (401 westbound) is usually 20-30min.  It took 3.5hrs yesterday.  Backyard had a fair bit of water, but house ok otherwise.

So, how did you fare?

Some highlights:

[brad808]

I no longer live in Toronto but this is just crazy. Would have sucked to be on the go train or ttc. I heard a lot of those people were stuck underground in subways because the power outage. For some reason my small city misses all the crazy storms and every city around us just gets hammered.

Sent from my Nexus 4

[lilshawn]

Not in toronto, but we had a pretty gnarly downpour in Edmonton yesterday too. was fixing a machine at the university when we heard thunder.  uh oh.

Stuck out in the middle of the city...with a pinball machine... uncovered... in the back of the truck.... with a 1/2 hour commute to get back to the shop. 

Was sopping up water pooled in the bottom of the cabinet and backbox.

Looks okay, woods not swelled up or anything. Yeah it's going to be a few days leaving it open to dry out before I plug that one in. 

[spoot]

Ouch!  That's a nasty amount of water.........makes the collapsing ceiling in my bedroom that I woke up too pale in comparison.   

[CheffoJeffo]

Middle picture is near Casa Cheffo.

We did pretty well. Took a bit of water (one project machine got a bit wet,but not terribly) and still no power, but I've got cars, inverters and power bricks, so not unbearable.

Big problem I have is getting wireless service -- from about midnight last night there was a dead zone of about 20 square blocks with my house at the damned centre. Had to get in the car and drive 6 blocks so I could get a signal and work. Just got a signal again at home about 20 minutes ago.

More rain slated for tonight with hail tommorrow.

[Monkeyvoodoo]

Wow.
Just wow!

 I'm from the GTA originally and I just left Ontario on Sunday to drive back to BC. I'm glad I left a day earlier. I did catch the edge of the storm going through Michigan but I didn't know it was that bad.

I think I should be making some calls now back home.


Sent from a pineapple under the sea

[ids]

Cheffo, sorry to hear about your troubles.  Hopefully tonight's rain is minimal and does not cause any problems for anyone.
Monkey - I'm sure those you left behind are ok, and they're likely to have some good stories for you.
It seems the flooding dissipated fairly quickly in some areas, but the loss of power was a big problem for many.  We got lucky there as well; power restored around  10:30pm
Some friends of mine commuting from down town to the burbs via GO Train didn't get home till after 10pm last night.

(fwiw: "GO Train" is a commuter train thing,  the green/white trains in some of the pictures)

More pics here: http://www.citynews.ca/2013/07/09/in-photos-massive-flooding-across-the-gta
Watch out for that 17th hole, the water hazard is really something:

[CheffoJeffo]

It really isn't terrible, although I just heard likely no power until tomorrow morning. Can stay with in-laws, I suppose ... or  I could just drive up to the cottage !

[brad808]

or  I could just drive up to the cottage !

A few years back (quite a few now) when we had that massive power loss in all southern ontario/ buffalo etc I just decided to go camping for the weekend. Cook on a fire and sleep in a tent, you'd never be able to tell there was no power there anyways.

[ids]

funny...for that big power loss years ago, we were already on the road to a camping trip.  Went in, setup, then headed to town for some food to put on the fire and were surprised they had no power.  We found a small shop with a generator that was open, got food, life was good.  Locally, power was restored within an hour or two (I don't recall exactly - this was up in Port Elgin).  Being in the woods and without news, it was a week before we learned how bad it was, and how widespread.

It's only when you lose something that you appreciate what you had.

[CheffoJeffo]

This is starting to get stupid. 41 hours without power and the damned neighbours behind me (closer to the problem zone) have had power since last night.

Fingers crossed.

[ids]

Sorry to hear this - apparently you are one of those rare "lucky" few living in the dead zone.   According to 680:

The outage was due to flooding at two Hydro One power stations. Manby Transformer Station remains out of order — one of two main supply points into Toronto.

“Essentially removing from Manby alone 300,000 gallons of water — that’s 15 swimming pools … The electrical equipment was submerged in water,” Hydro One spokesperson Tiziana Baccega Rosa told 680News.

So, it sounds like they built a key electrical station in a low lying area?  That would be silly, like if Japan were to build nuclear plants on a fault zone near the water.  Oh wait...

Well, I know a lot of offices are reducing consumption to help the situation, but apparently, you're waiting for this Manby site to dry out.  I think TO Hydro has to make sure this never happens again.

[CheffoJeffo]

* CheffoJeffo  does power-is-back happy dance

[ids]

quick!  get some mame action in, before they shut you down again! 
Good to hear.

[jdbailey1206]

Sorry to hear about your ordeals CheffoJeffo.  Living close by (Michigan  ) I understand the torments you're facing.   Most people don't realize how much water is in the Great Lakes.  Plus all the rain we have been getting in our neck of woods doesn't help.  It's has to end up somewhere.  Thus we see what happened earlier.  Not to be a Debbie Downer buthere are some facts about the Great Lakes.  And if you don't know about Debbie Downer then you should enjoy this.                                           

[BobA]

Hulu not available in Canada without spoofing the ip.

[CheffoJeffo]

quick!  get some mame action in, before they shut you down again! 
Good to hear.

Environment Canada has issued a severe thunderstorm watch for Toronto.

There is a 60 per cent chance of showers or thunderstorms this afternoon, with a risk of severe thunderstorms. Meteorologists say this could bring wind gusts of up to 90 kilometres an hour, hail as large as two centimetres in diameter and downpours of up to 50 milimetres in an hour.

Are you kidding me?

We got 125 mm in a day and that shut the city down. Can't wait to see what 50mm in an hour does.

 

* CheffoJeffo plugs in all devices for charging.

[jdbailey1206]

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/debbie-downer/n11842/

[ids]

Cheffo, if you lose power again, and need an arcade fix, I'm like 15min away, max
also got some darts, foos, Manx TT, cpl pins, super chexx.... u bring the beer 

[BobA]

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/debbie-downer/n11842/

Not available at your location (Canada)

Everyone have a hate on for Canada?

[ids]

I think we are just misunderstood.

Here's a primer for non-Canadians: http://www.theonion.com/articles/perky-canada-has-own-government-laws,19927/ 

[Monkeyvoodoo]

funny...for that big power loss years ago, we were already on the road to a camping trip.  Went in, setup, then headed to town for some food to put on the fire and were surprised they had no power.  We found a small shop with a generator that was open, got food, life was good.  Locally, power was restored within an hour or two (I don't recall exactly - this was up in Port Elgin).  Being in the woods and without news, it was a week before we learned how bad it was, and how widespread.

It's only when you lose something that you appreciate what you had.

I remember that outage. At least I think I do. I did have a lot of beer to take care of when the power went out.


Sent from a pineapple under the sea