Repeated flooding raises infrastructure concerns in St. Catharines

In the Niagara Region, both the City of St. Catharines and the Town of Lincoln have declared a state of emergency. 

In the last three weeks, both areas have seen three storms that brought a total of over 400 mm of rain, causing widespread flooding.  

Rose Marie Simpell, 84, is taking matters into her own hands after her basement on Hanson Drive in St. Catharines flooded. 

“The city put this trench in here but I’m here digging it out because nobody ever comes and digs it out again,” Simpell says.

“Start at Linwell Road and do the sewers and the road, all the way up Hanson Drive because I’m tired of putting up with this,” she says in a message directed at the city.

Hanson Drive got hit hard over the past few weeks with rain, leaving many basements flooded twice. 

“It’s been challenging and we got to be ready for it this upcoming weekend because we are expecting more rain. We need some sewers, we need some more infrastructure,” says Pat Gordon, another city resident.

During a news conference on Tuesday, Mayor Mat Siscoe says St. Catharines has been hit with three major storms since July 21. 

WATCH MORE: Lincoln, Ont. declares state of emergency after historic flooding

However, by the second and third storms, the ground was completely saturated and unable to absorb any more rainfall. 

The mayor says the city has invested in infrastructure and as they do upgrades, the standards will reflect the more anticipated significant rainfalls.

He says no municipal infrastructure in Canada is designed to manage precipitation of this magnitude. The scale and intensity of these storms surpassed the capacity of even the most modern systems. 

The province has deployed the Ontario Corps volunteers as a result of St. Catharines declaring the city a state of emergency. If it is declared a disaster zone, then homes will be eligible for funds.

“So volunteers through that organization are going out into communities supplying resources and also it means that those municipalities are receiving some of that support through the Provincial Emergency Operation Centre,” Niagara West MPP Sam Oosterhoff says.

Oosterhoff says Niagara Region has received more than $272 million in total provincial infrastructure investments over the past two years. 

“If folks drive through Jordan for example, they’ll see the pipes going in the ground and there’s been recent upgrades and more work being done in Beamsville and St. Catharines … at the end of the day the sheer amount of water that came down, if it’s old infrastructure that isn’t able to meet that capacity, it’s very challenging,” he says.

The City of St. Catharines has established a vulnerable assistance registry for eligible residents who require support removing water and waste from their homes. 

For more information residents can visit the city’s website.

WATCH MORE: St. Catharines declares state of emergency after flooding