Canucks I hear there is major flooding in Toronto and massive powercuts

[malaise]

A friend sent me this:

Latest: 300,000 out of power in Toronto

Over 10,000 stranded in the underground subway

80% of Mississauga has no power?


Flash flooding downtown and other areas...Don Valley flood out....many cars totally submerged

GO train flooded on Richmond Hill line...and stuck on the line...water coming from the Don river

Sewage spraying out a manhole outside Roger's centre
------------------------
What's going on?

[Posteritatis]

1. Summer rainstorms in that part of Ontario can get, ah, enthusiastic sometimes

They got about four inches of rain in a fairly short period of time and hydrodynamics ensued, basically.

[Foolacious]

2. Geez, I haven't heard a thing

Heavy rain here but no flooding. No power outage. I'm east of the Don Valley

[SidDithers]

7. It was very localized...

Oshawa got 4mm of rain.
Oakville got 15mm.

Pearson got 123mm.

Looked like tornado weather when I was leaving Mississauga (401 & Mississauga Rd) at 5:00 last night.

Crazy storm.

Sid

[applegrove]

3. Pearson Airport was closed for a bit. Planes diverted to the much smaller Ottawa airport.

[Tripper11]

4. Yeah it's pretty crazy.

Flooded subway stations, stranded train riders. GO train had to rescue passengers from one train.
I'm in Missisauga and we've been without power now for over 3 hours.
Drove around a bit...some traffic lights are on, most aren't.
We went to Meadowvale Town Centre and they're rocking power. That said, the place is a zoo. People going for supplies, food, whatever.
Saw some pics of cars floating.


Edited to add link to Toronto Star http://livenews.thestar.com/Event/Severe_thunderstorms_in_Toronto

[malaise]

5. Wow

Just heard there was more rain in two hours than is expected for all of July

No climate change here either!!!

[malaise]

6. 90 mm of rain fell in two hours fell at Toronto Pearson Airport

eclipsing the daily record for today of 29 mm.
Holy Shite!!!
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/07/08/toronto-power-down_n_3563533.html?utm_hp_ref=canada
<snip>
Mississauga, a city of more than 700,000, saw some of the worst of the blackouts with 80 per cent of the municipality plunged into the dark, according to power distributor Enersource. The utility said it hoped to have the power back by midnight, but made no promises.

Environment Canada said some parts of the GTA had been drenched with more than 90 millimetres of rain, and the total was expected to top 100 mm by night's end, handily beating the previous one-day rainfall record of 29.2 mm in 2008.

Water from flash flooding poured out of sewer drains while Toronto's downtown core was dotted with abandoned vehicles, some sitting in water up to their windows. One woman, sporting a T-shirt and shorts, dove head-first through the window of her marooned car before wading away in the thigh-deep water.

All of Toronto's subway service was temporarily halted due to power and signal issues. Some stations were also flooded. Partial service has since resumed but large parts of the system are still shut down.