Tory says homes on Toronto island 'potentially in jeopardy'
Flooding on the islands are due more to lake levels than recent rain, the mayor adds
Mayor John Tory says city officials are monitoring the condition on the Toronto Islands. Winds have shifted, which means the water is being pushed onto lower areas of the islands, where flooding was evident on Friday.
"The island this morning, I'm informed, is much as it was yesterday. Everybody is keeping a very close eye on it," he said. "We'll just have to take it one day at a time."
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Tory said homes on Ward's Island are "potentially in jeopardy" if more rain falls but city officials are mapping low lying areas and monitoring lake levels, he said.
"In terms of damage, I am not sure even if the residents were saying there was very much damage," he said.
"They are quite hardy about just saying it's a bit of water in the crawl space.
"It's one of those things where it could get worse if the water levels got much higher, but for the moment, we didn't even hear people saying yesterday that there was a lot of homes that were actually damaged."
Flooding on the islands are due more to lake levels than recent rain, Tory said, although the heavy rain has made both situations worse.
Precautions taken
Warren Hoselton, a park supervisor for the Toronto Islands, told CBC Toronto that 5,000 sandbags have been put down and more bags are expected to be placed tomorrow.
Hoselton says waves can rise to two or three feet high on the islands and the steps taken to protect the islands are only precautionary.
"The water levels are high and they are predicted to rise slightly, but the wild card is the winds and the waves action," he said. "It's not going to be a quick fix. We're not out of the woods yet. It's going to be a while."
The Toronto Islands have seen similar large floods in the early '70s and early '90s, and the recent flooding hasn't fazed some longtime residents.
Jimmy Jones moved to the Toronto Islands in 1932 as a child and says he has seen flooding on the islands that have even been worse.
"This is bad, but not as bad it has been." Jones said. "I think that we're okay now."
