Flooding and high winds hit as cleanup continues from Boxing Day storm

Crews had nearly finished dealing with the aftermath of Boxing Day's freezing rain when heavy rain and strong winds hit London on Sunday.

A flood warning is now in place and the wind, expected to continue through Monday, has London Hydro bracing for potential further outages.

While London Hydro crews have now restored power to nearly every customer who lost it on Boxing Day, they have also been resting up in anticipation of more damage to power lines from the wind, spokesperson Kathryn Arnot said.

"We need to be prepared for that because what we might see is a lot of these frozen tree limbs start to fall off again with high winds," Arnot said.

Environment Canada predicted wind gusts of up to 80 km/h would begin Sunday night and end by Tuesday morning.

Hydro crews responded to thousands of outages across the region on the evening of Dec. 26. In London, Ont., trees fell onto people's homes and blocked roads.

At one point, London Hydro said more than 70 outages were active, though that number fluctuated. The utility company also turned to the fire department for help.

As of Saturday night, London Hydro had about 31 customers without power across eight outages. By Sunday morning that had decreased to a few individual homes across the city, Arnot said.

London Hydro was also dealing with approximately 300 trouble calls by Sunday morning, Arnot added, and they have been working through the list, making sure they reach out to each customer.

Local streams, rivers and ditches are expected to rise Monday, according to the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority (UTRCA).

The rain began Sunday afternoon, and according to Environment Canada, a total of 30 to 60 milimetres of rain will fall before clearing up early Monday morning, with locally higher amounts possible. Temperatures stayed above freezing for most of Sunday, but with the ground frozen and already saturated, rain, melting snow and ice will cause runoff, leading to potential flooding, the UTRCA said in a statement.

"Everyone is reminded to stay out of any flooded areas and not drive through flooded roadways," UTRCA said. "Parents and caregivers should keep children and pets away from watercourses."

With rising water levels, it is not safe to take shelter along riverbanks, or low-lying areas, UTRCA warned. Stream banks may be slippery and any ice cover will be unstable.

The Thames River is expected to reach peak levels Monday evening and will remain high throughout the rest of the week.