The Day After

Last night, torrential rain poured. We received 50 cm in one hour. A pool collected at the bottom half of our street, submerging some of the gardens and basements.

While this was happening, I was in pottery class with my neighbour. Her husband phoned to tell us about the flooding at the bottom of our street and the firetrucks, ambulances and city trucks that had gathered there. He said, You may not be able to get home.

By the time we ended class and came home, the water had already drained from the street. You wouldn't know there had been a flood except for one neighbour carrying wet things out of his basement to his front lawn, and a large city truck that was still parked on the street.

This morning, there were six disaster cleaning and restoration trucks on our street. At least four houses had flooded basements. Two houses have large green garbage bins in front that bear the slogan "Bin there, dump that". Everyone inquired of each other to see if their homes survived the storm. Even neighbours who don't get along asked each other, Is your basement okay?

I found out that one neighbour was driving home when the downpour came and drove his dad's car into the pool at the bottom of the street. It was stuck there for a few hours until the water drained. I see there are many new blooms on my potted flowering maples today. I guess I hadn't been water them enough.

By afternoon, we are used to the presence of the disaster cleaning trucks. There are more people walking about today than usual. I am sure they are just neighbours checking on the progress of the cleaning. When a cleaning truck drives away, I think a house just got restored. But of course I don't know that for sure.

I am just glad we did work to seal our basement foundation years ago to prevent flooding.