Severe flooding prompts road closures in London

Road closed sign. Blackburn News file photo.

City officials in London had to close parts of two streets after heavy rainfall caused significant flooding.

A rainfall warning issued on Tuesday for most of southwestern Ontario along with a gale wind warning caused problems ranging from power outages, fallen debris, and road closures in many areas.

Just before 10 p.m. Wednesday, the City of London announced Oxford Street West between Beaverbrook Avenue and Proudfoot Lane had to be closed as the road was underwater.

A video shared by London subreddit user/Drag0n_no shows a London Transit bus driver trying to navigate Oxford Street prior to the closure. In the footage, water can be seen rushing inside the bus.

The section of Oxford, as well as Pine Street between Ash Street and Hume Street, has since reopened. Dingman Drive between Highbury Avenue South and Old Victoria Road remained closed because of flooding Thursday morning.

Elsewhere, a large tree fell on some power lines in the area of Quebec Street and Queens Avenue causing a fairly large outage within the Old East Village and parts of downtown just after 8 p.m. Wednesday.

London Hydro told BlackburnNews.com that around 1,900 customers were impacted. As of 10 p.m., most customers had regained electricity.

A cold front bringing in a low-pressure system full of rain and strong winds led to road closures outside of London as well. Middlesex County declared a state of emergency late Wednesday after many roads were reported to be underwater.

According to Environment Canada, the majority of precipitation associated with the rainfall warning was expected to fall overnight Wednesday. Upwards of 100 millimetres of rain soaked the area over a two-day period.