Monday, June 23, 2008

The Don, Flooding Again


Railroad bridge, at end of Beechwood Drive

Same bridge when river is not in flood

Torrential rains across the city Monday afternoon drenched the city. Whenever the city gets this much rain in a short period (I was caught by the rain just as I was leaving a pub. I had to stay an extra hour... darn!) it always impacts the Don more so than other areas. There are still many storm sewer pipes that flow unrestricted into the river. All the rain that hits our roads and parking lots ends up in the river. This effect is amplified because a lot of water is funnelled into a narrow channel, ie. the Don River. If you compare the two pictures above, you can see the level of the water is nearly 2 metres above the normal water level.

I took a short bike ride through the lower Don and took a few more pictures.


Mud Creek, north of the Brick Works. Normally a small creek, it becomes quite a torrent after a storm. The fallen tree at the bottom left was washed out by a storm about a month ago.

Chester Springs Marsh with water. Normally it is dry except for these rare occasions when the water is high enough to flood the marsh basin. Damaged hydrology means that it will empty very quickly rather than retaining this moisture.

Lower Don Path at the Riverdale footbridge. I had to exit here because the path was completely flooded.

Another shot of the river in flood

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