Toronto faces backlog of hundreds of flooding calls

Toronto is still grappling with the aftermath of last week's record rainfall, with city staff working through a backlog of hundreds of basement flooding and sewer blockage calls.

Nearly a week after the intense rainfall and flooding, the terrible impact continues to be felt by both homeowners and businesses, and work is underway to inspect city roads and bridges swamped by the storm.

The final cost of the flood to taxpayers has yet to be determined. 

"Toronto Water made a lot of progress over the weekend in responding to reports of basement flooding (and) overflowing catch basins, and has been able to revise its service response time," city spokesperson Laura McQuillan said in a statement. 

And while the time to deploy a technician has come down, waits of between 48 to 72 hours remain.

Last Tuesday, parts of the city saw more than 100 millimetres of rainfall in a torrential downpour that flooded homes, streets and major highways including the Don Valley Parkway and Gardiner Expressway. At the height of the storm, 167,000 Toronto Hydro customers were without power.

As of Monday morning, the city had received nearly 1,400 requests to clear sewer connection blockages, with almost 1,100 resolved and more than 180 still pending.

City staff also received 66 calls for overflowing catch basins, with 23 resolved and 43 of those requests still pending.

In all, the city received nearly 3,000 calls related to the rainfall and flooding.

Workers are also continuing city-wide inspections of bridges and culverts affected by the storm. All critical structures close to Lake Ontario, and about 75 per cent of water crossings, have been inspected with "no significant" structural concerns observed, staff said.

"Further monitoring or maintenance activities will be coordinated based on our inspection results, which include clearing debris, cleaning catch basins and repairing eroded areas," McQuillan said.

Mayor Olivia Chow said Monday that a broad swath of city departments continue to respond to the major storm, including shelter services and public health.

Chow and Deputy Mayor Jennifer McKelvie have asked city staff to report back on storm water mitigation programs in light of the impacts of last week's storm. City council is set to debate that motion this week, with an eye to helping identify more ways to help homeowners and businesses avoid flooding.

"What can we do to have less storm water runoff, especially in a big parking lot?" Chow said. "It becomes a parking lake when a huge storm comes."