When water began pouring into Cara Linehan’s basement, she thought the washing machine was flooding.“Then we went into my room and it was completely flooded,” said Linehan, who lives near Dufferin and College Sts. “There was water coming through the walls and up from the ground.”Linehan and her roommates were among the many households affected by what a meteorologist called a one in 100-year storm that pummelled Toronto. Tenants like Linehan living in more affordable basement apartments were hit particularly hard by the flooding — she said that three of the house’s rooms are in the basement, and they’ll have to discard a ruined sofa, floor mats and a dresser.Flooded basements, waterlogged streets, stalled public transportation and overflowing sewers beset the city in a matter of hours on Tuesday night, with 72.3 millimetres of rain measured at Billy Bishop airport between 9 and 11 p.m.“I’ve never experienced this in my life before,” said Linehan, who recently immigrated to Canada from Ireland. Read more:Men trapped in flooded elevator describe their rescueEverything you need to know to prepare for Toronto’s next flash floodToronto’s infrastructure was not designed to handle weather events like Tuesday’s storm, said urban planner Ken Greenberg.“When you have 60, 70 or 80 millimetres of rain in two hours, it simply overwhelms not only the sewers, but also affects the skin of buildings, elevators and underpasses.”As the city grows, more surfaces become concrete and impermeable, he said. That pushes stormwater into sewer systems rather than being gradually absorbed into the ground.As events like Tuesday’s storm become more frequent, “it’s dawning on us” that existing city standards did not anticipate the level of stress that climate change is bringing, he said, adding that it’s “maddening” to see the reluctance of elected official ...
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