A freak summer storm Sunday evening that took much of Greater Sudbury by surprise is keeping residents, city workers and emergency personnel busy.

“We have crews out now assessing the situation and seeing what we can do to alleviate some of the problems,” said Chantal Mathieu, acting general manager of infrastructure services for the city during an interview Monday morning.

Mathieu warned citizens that the city's phone lines are “very busy.”

“If water has stopped coming into your house then you should contact your own insurance company. Still contact the city because the city's insurance adjuster will also be sent out. It's just going to take several days because of the number of calls coming in. If water is still coming into your house we will dispatch a travel investigator.”

The city is unaware of any infrastructures breakdowns at this point, but assessment is still underway, Mathieu said.

Paul Sajatovic, director of watershed management services with the Nickel District Conservation Authority, said the floods were isolated to specific areas. These areas included parts of the downtown core, Junction Creek, along Nolin Creek, in the Donovan area, and the Copper Cliff Creek, according to Sajatovic.

Other areas such as Lively and Walden received “practically nothing,” according to Sajatovic. The South End parts of the city experienced “virtually nothing,” as well.

“It was very isolated and it was the kind of thunderstorm system that you get in the summer from the heating during the day and the way that they track.

In the heart of downtown, Tara Crocco received a surprise when she tried driving under the Brady Street overpass.

“I was going to visit a friend in the hospital. I knew it was raining hard, but it seemed normal to keep driving through the tunnel. I thought of any place to be dry it would be in a tunnel. There were no barricades,” she said.

“The water was first up to the middle top my tires. Then it was over the tires. I put the vehicle into four wheel drive and started to crawl forward under the overpass. Someone said there is a dip under the tunnel. I didn't know that. Then all of a sudden I knew my truck was floating and it was not on the ground,” she
said at about 9 p.m. Sunday evening. She was waiting as her vehicle was being towed out by Boyuk Towing.

Crocco said she had her windows up. She then let down her window.

“I thought I had to get out of here. That's when the water came in fast. It was up to my waist in the car.”

There were police officers on the other side of the underpass, she said.

“At first I didn't think they realized I was in the car. I was able to get out the window. Then I stood up on the seat and the truck's deck (running board) and they realized I was there,” she said.

Crocco had just bought her 2003 Nissan Pathfinder two weeks ago.

“It could have been a lot worse. No one got hurt. I was not trapped in the vehicle,” she said. She when she got to “shore” the police officers took her into their car to warm up.

Allen Ziminski, operations manager at Pete's Rentall on Lorne Street near Douglas Street, said the downpour was so heavy a piece of concrete was moved by the water and covered a storm water grate. The result was water several feet high in the rear of the building and flooding in the store in the basement and the main floor.

Several homes along Douglas Street experienced flooded basements from sewer back-up and backyards under water.

On Riverside Drive, near the Sudbury Amoury, homes on both sides of the street were flooded out.

Mike Sauve, owner of a home across the street from Junction Creek on Riverside, said he has never seen this kind of flooding before.

“My tenant called me and I came right over. I have owned the house since 2005. We are low here, but I never saw it (water) come up this high. It was 18 inches in the back and in my basement. I have a drain in the back yard and it has always handled rain water. It was overwhelmed,” he said.

He speculated some of the water came off the hill to the rear.

“I would like to think it was just Mother Nature but I think it was also a break down of the city's infrastructure,” he said.

There was nothing the city could have done to prevent the flooding, Sajatovic said.

“This was something that had no warning. Environment Canada had no special weather statements out, they had no warnings, except to say during the day yesterday we could expect thunderstorms and that kind of thing. Nothing to that intensity or that extreme nature in an isolated area.

“It was a situation where the conditions developed as sometimes intense summer storms do and they can just pop up as they did... All the resources that could be marshaled, were marshaled, in terms of infrastructure, emergency services, fire services and police services.”
The storm dropped “torrential rain” in a very short period of time, Sajatovic said.

Another homeowner, who identified himself only as Rodney, whose property is beside the creek, said in his seven-and-a-half years in the home, he has never seen this kind of flooding.

“I was told this is the worst in 37 years,” he said.

His backyard was flooded several feet up his back wall from the overflow from Junction Creek. He had water in his basement up to his waist.

“It is a combination of sewer back up and water coming in the back door.”

When Northern Life checked on the Riverside Drive properties Monday morning, water in the nearby creek had lowered and water was no longer in the backyards. The Brady Street underpass was also clear of water.

The Sudbury weather tracking office, which is at the Sudbury Airport, registered 16.6 millimeters from 2 a.m. Sunday to 2 a.m. Monday, or “virtually nothing,” Sajatovic said.

The conservation authority has been in contact with Environment Canada to get some radar tracking for areas of the city that were hit harder. Sajatovic said it will take some time to get results because Environment Canada is under strain.

“A good part of the province is under very unstable weather, and even in Southern Ontario, they've had massive amounts of rain, washing out roads and that kind of thing, so it's going to take (Environment Canada) a little while to get some information.”