Tecumseh Mayor Gary McNamara admits he does not have all the information yet, but there are widespread reports of flooding, basement and otherwise, across his town.
Around 11pm Monday night, Tecumseh Deputy Mayor Joe Bachetti tweeted that 115 mm of rain had fallen at that point, but McNamara says the morning showed a different story.
Crews are ensuring that all pumping stations are operational and that trash grates are not plugged tonight so far 115mm since 6pm #tecumseh pic.twitter.com/C1jlIjTXGk
— Joe Bachetti (@TecumsehJoe) August 29, 2017
"The amount of rainfall last night, from our monitoring stations, was anywhere from 130 mm to 185 mm," McNamara says, suggesting some areas may have received even higher totals.
Environment Canada had previously reported the highest totals came from the area near North Malden Rd. near Essex, while the Essex Region Conservation Authority issued a flood warning Tuesday morning.
"We had our crews out early," he says. "They were out around the dinner hour making sure that the grates were kept clean. At the end of the day, it's the volume of water, and you can blame infrastructure all you want, but the point is some of the infrastructure has been in the ground a long time."
Town of Tecumseh Mayor Gary McNamara, January 14, 2014.
McNamara, a vocal critic of infrastructure funding levels from senior governments, says the town's infrastructure is not designed to handle rain from what used to be considered once every 100-year storms, and while work is underway to update sewers, doing it at once is not feasible.
"For us to say 'now we're going to build, and design, and repair, and replace every asset that we've got in the municipality, it would be close to $600-million," he says. "It's impossible to do that all in one swoop."
McNamara says the town is just about ready to finalize a master plan Tecumseh embarked on after the flood of last September. Going forward, he also says the municipality is also building infrastructure that can handle extreme rainfall.
"We have to," he emphasizes. "We have to certainly develop systems now that are going to be extremely costly -- looking at those one-in-100-year storms that are going to be more frequent."
"With climate change, with folks that still believe that that's a hoax or that it's not happening, it's happening," says McNamara.
The Town of Lakeshore is advising residents with flooded basements to avoid showering, flushing toilets or using dishwashers and washing machines to minimize the impact on their home's sanitary system.
Residents who have experienced flooding should also call the Town of Lakeshore at 519-728-2700 to report it.
Crews from Lakeshore are working primarily between Pike Creek Rd. and Puce River to ensure the sanitary sewer system continues to operate.
Windsor fared far better than much of Essex County, with flooding reported at 59 homes. City Engineer Mark Winterton says anyone who had flooding in their home and has not reported it yet, should call the 311 Call Centre.
He also stresses the city is still offering subsidies to help with the cost of flood mitigation in homes and downspout disconnection free of charge.
Winterton says street flooding was a bigger problem by far. At one point, Riverside Dr. E was shut down at Jefferson Blvd. because of high water levels.