The Municipality of Chatham-Kent is assessing the damage on Erie Shore Drive before making a decision on when it will reopen.
On Saturday afternoon, the Erie Beach roadway was closed to traffic after it suffered damage due to flooding.
Ryan Brown, director of public works with the municipality, said his team still has to remove some water from the road and then gauge the extent of the damage before they can make an estimate on when it will be re-opened.
"We need a chance to evaluate the condition of the road before we decide on reopening," explained Brown. "At this time it's temporary and once we asses the conditions of the road we'll be investigating if it will be closed temporarily or permanently in the future."
Brown said that on Saturday, flood water had eroded the side of the road severely that conditions became unsafe for driving.
"On the weekend the high water level and the high wind caused a pretty severe washout in one area of the road which is not safe for traffic to be on. So, we did some repairs and put in some temporary measures to stop the water from getting into the road and doing further damage," said Brown. "Now we're at the point where we're trying to get the water off the road and we can determine what damage has been done."
Erie Beach resident Luigi Campora has a residence up the road from where the bulk of the damage occurred. His son, however, owns a property directly in front of one of the major areas of the road that was washed away. On Monday he was visiting his son's house and told Blackburn News that at some points during the weekend, the water was up to his knees. Campora said it's shocking to see how quickly the damage happened and the situation has left the family with a sense of uneasiness.
"He can't sleep at night," said Campora. "He never knows, like two days ago it was fine and two o'clock [in the morning, and then] all of a sudden [the noise of rushing water]. He thought it was a storm or a tornado. Nobody knows, its scary, you never know, the condition the water's in now, it doesn't take long."
Campora described the scene as being "like a lake." He added that in his 17 years of living in the area, he has never seen such an intense situation.
"The trouble is he's got a basement and believe it or not, he's got three pumps and they never stopped on Saturday. The pump must have been [running] for 24 hours a day Saturday, it never stopped on Saturday. The water, they pump it out and it comes in again," explained Campora.
According to Brown, the municipality has been working closely with people living on the road to help ease the situation.
"Obviously it's not a good situation for the residents along those roads, not only with the road being closed but the water on their properties. We were working hand in hand with residents on that road on the weekend... we had some culverts that were blocked and water wasn't draining properly so we were working with them and we had a really great response from the residents," said Brown.
As far as fixing the damage that was caused, Brown said there are several steps that will have to take place to bring the roadway to what it once was a few days ago.
"The first thing they have to do is try and stop the water coming on to it, they installed some blocks to try and block a lot of the water," he explained. "Try to replace the gravel that was lost and build those areas back up and keep the waves from actually hitting the gravel underbase on the road."
Brown added that there are several other sections of road in the area that the public works department has identified as being at risk. He explained that they are putting the necessary measures in place to build up at-risk areas in hopes of preventing a similar situation from happening.
As the municipality continues to monitor the situation and Erie Shore Drive remains closed, Brown is reminding residents to use caution when approaching the area.
"Please everybody use patience," he said. "Please if you see a road closed signs, it means there's a danger up ahead and please don't be going down those roads if you don't need to, they're road closed, local [traffic], only if you need to get to your house."
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