When the rain takes over

For some of us living in a big city when there is a major rain fall, things can be greatly impacted. For us here in Toronto there is a river that runs right beside a highway and when the river overflows the highway gets flooded.  This has happened quite a few times over the years and there doesn’t seem to be a solution on how to manage this situation.

·         When we get lots of rain the river is one of the main places that the rainwater is sent so that means that when there is lots of rain, around 2–3 inches there is going to be an issue.

·         This river is right beside one of the highways (Don Valley Parkway) and the river shores are a little higher than the highway, so you can guess what happens.

So, the results that happen is that the Don River decided to overflow its banks and where does the water go except onto the two roadways that are right beside this river and that means that both of these roads/highways are flooded so that means that there is a major issue.

It got higher after this

On July 16^th, 2024, there was an issue where we saw a lot of rain and as you can probably guess the Don Valley Parkway overflowed and both directions of the highway were closed and there were vehicles stuck because they were caught in all the water. This issue also affected the road on the other side of the river which is Bayview Avenue and that was also closed because of flooding so yes lots of issues that needed to be handled.

This storm that I am talking about impacted a lot of things and with all the rain we got there were also a lot of power outages within Toronto and Toronto Fire had received more than 75% more calls than normal through the day today so that was also something that had to be dealt with. Toronto Fire and Hydro requested that if it wasn’t an emergency to place stop trying to report everything and leave the lines available for emergency issues.

Our transit system (TTC) as also impacted given all the rain and power outages. Some of the vehicles were being diverted and other parts of the transit system just needed to be changed. For our subway system we cannot divert trains, but they can change the starting and stopping of the routes and that is what they did. The system tried their back to maintain service the best that they could and given the amount of rain that we got I am happy with how things were managed.

The flooding of the Don River was only one of the issues that the city had to deal with because there were a lot of other roads that were flooded, which meant people being stranded in their vehicles or the transit system having to divert around the issues. It was a day that a lot of people probably would have wished that they stayed at home today instead of going out and trying to get into the office.

For us, we normally work at home which is good, especially when it rains like it did today. However, when a client has an issue, and you are the closest one to one of their offices, you have to start figuring out how you are going to get to that location. Given all the power outages and flooding it the area of the client site it would have meant a bit of a walk, but thankfully things were resolved remotely, and it meant no trip was required.

So, the water decided to take over the city on the 16^th of July, and it did impact a lot of people, but the water is slowly starting to subside and drain and that means that things should get back to normal before too long or at least we hope that it does. It is now late on the 16^th, and I am checking what has been happening, and I think a lot of the city is getting back to normal and hopefully tomorrow morning everything will be working just fine.

 

Listening to the rain

It is so different listening to the sound of the rain in the city compared to listening to it in the country.

In the city, you really don't get to hear much of the sound when it rains. In a city, there are too many other sounds that the rain just happens. Yes, there can be times that you can hear a bit of rain hitting the window, but it is blended with all the other sounds around you.

I am currently sitting in a house in the country and enjoying just hearing the rain hitting the window as well as hitting the metal roof. It is so calming and relaxing just hearing the rain. Where we are staying, there isn't a lot of traffic, so the rain is the sound that you get to enjoy. I am sitting looking out of the window and enjoying seeing the rain and just listening to it fall.

There are so many sounds that we miss when living in a city. In the city, all the sounds seem to blend, and you don't get the opportunity to hear the different sounds separately. Taking the time to just enjoy some of the different sounds can make a difference. Being able to appreciate the quiet when it's available makes such o difference.

If you have the opportunity to spend some time away from the city and away from all those sounds, you will hear things differently. One thing you will notice is how different it is to hear sounds separately compared to just hearing the blended sounds. Enjoy the time away from the city and if it rains enjoy the sound of just the rain.

 

 

Slippery weather

Today was a day when people that couldn't drive in slippery weather should have just stayed home.

The weather has been very up and down lately and today was one of those days when we woke up with 6 cm of snow and the forecast was for freezing rain and then rain.  The temperature was just at -1 C, so it meant that the snow was heavy and hard to deal with.  While waiting for a bus, which was probably the best mode of transportation today, I got to watch people and vehicles go by.  One bus that seemed to have problems stopping and going around curves in the road was interesting to watch.  It made it to my stop without too much problem, but that was it.  It got to the next stop with some difficulty but leaving that stop is when it got stuck.  I am so glad that I wasn't on that bus because everyone had to get off it and onto another bus, so they could continue their trip.

People walking didn't seem to have too much problem, but not sure how long that is going to last because if we do get any freezing rain it is going to make the shovelled sidewalks very slippery.  So people that wore running shoes may find it hard to walk if it does get slippery.

The good news is this afternoon we are supposed to get to +4C, so a lot of this rotten snow should start to melt.  The bad news about the melt is if the sewers are blocked with plowed snow the water will have nowhere to go, so it will mean big puddles which drives seem to like driving through and seeing how high the water will spray.  So, let's hope that the temperature rises slowly, so it can make its way to the sewer so that puddles are very small.

So, for people that don't like driving in slippery weather, just wait until tomorrow, as we are supposed to have really nice weather and all of this snow and slippery stuff will be gone.