Flooding on major highway, transit hub in Toronto amid torrential rain

Torrential rain that pummeled Toronto flooded a major highway, several thoroughfares and a key transit hub on Tuesday, while leaving large parts of the city without power.

Part of the Don Valley Parkway, which runs from the north part of the city into downtown, was closed due to flooding, with stretches of the highway awash with brown water. Toronto Fire Services said they rescued two people from flooding on the highway – one from inside their vehicle and another from the roof of their car – and later rescued another 12 people from flooding further down the highway.

Fire crews were also responding to an “extremely high” number of rescues related to flooding and elevator entrapments, the service said.

At the heart of the downtown core, there was flooding at Union station, a key transit terminus. Water was seen pooling on the floor of a main concourse and stores at the station were closed. Parts of the underground PATH network, which has retail and restaurants and connects to Union, were also closed due to flooding.

Subway trains were not stopping at Union, the Toronto Transit Commission said, while several transit buses and streetcars were making detours on their regular routes across the city due to localized flooding. GO Transit, which operates regional trains and buses across the Greater Toronto Area, reported several cancellations and delays out of Union.

Billy Bishop Airport, which is located on the Toronto Islands minutes from downtown, said its pedestrian tunnel had been closed due to flooding, with passengers directed to take the ferry over to the airport. The airport said some flights had been affected and urged passengers to check their flight status with their airlines.

Toronto Hydro said it was responding to “widespread outages” affecting large areas throughout the city. “We’re currently working with Hydro One to restore power. We appreciate everyone’s patience and understanding,” it wrote on X.

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow said the city was working to deal with the fallout from the massive downpour, noting that emergency services had not been affected.

She urged people to stay away from lakes and shorelines due to flooding, adding that she had seen images of cars abandoned on washed out roadways. Chow also noted that parts of city hall had experienced some flooding.

[IsaacGabriel-khds]

All that money spent and years and years of time renovating Union station and it still has flooding issues.

[MikelRChannel]

Toronto Mayor is more concerned about changing street names rather than spending tax money in infrastructure and maintaining the city.

[georgedavidson]

I guarantee the catch basins are plugged. They do not maintain properly

[calamityjane]

We need more greenspace and less concrete. Urban design in Toronto is deplorable.

[tommcallister]

It was 100% predictable that the DVP would flood given the intensity of yesterdays rain. Why wasn’t the DVP closed before the water actually rose to the level of the roadway?

[oldskool]

Toronto was built for 2 million people now theres 7

[andrewgeorgelang]

Looks like they caught Chow getting out of bed.

[deletesoon]

So we have forgotten lessons taught to us by Hazel. Hurricane Hazel that is, 1954. This road design is terrible to begin with, with inadequate catchbasin upkeep, obviously.

[MaCherieAmour]

Same thing happened about 7 or 8 Summers ago.

[EdwardKilner]

Nice report. Most of the locations shown were very foreseeable flood locations. One would expect the appropriate police and fire departments to have dispatched resources to those spots well before cars were flooded. And the affected drivers were a bit ridiculous in expecting to drive through water that deep.

[Paysley-hv]

Oh my God, that was a lot of rain
Are all the people that drives there? Are they all OK? .😮

[Sergeodessa]

That Olivia chowmen completely clueless lol. Something different then cutting ribbons on food fest

[SR-itfs]

Well when you pave over 80% of the natural vegetation and flora in the area that would typically absorb that water...you can't really be surprised with such incredibly flooding.

[weatherboi]

Well they did call for a chance of showers.

[dlv]

Unbelievable irresponsibility of people who built such a poor architecture design that imposes a life threatening risk for all people using subway.
All millions of $$$ flashed down the subway toilet and of course nobody will be held accountable.

[ChristophWhite]

Well when everything is concrete or paved water has nowhere to go

[theotothefuture]

Is Chow okay? She seems mentally clouded. Like she's under a spell or like she just ate too much at a buffet.

[dmcfarlane]

I had to skip through Olivia Chow speaking…

[MaximumPayine]

People in the comments just come to whine about how cr*ppy they think their lives are.

[Haywire-Alguire]

That is a shitload of rain ! How many times has this happened ??