22 reports of flooding after Windsor breaks rainfall record

Nicole Winkles woke up Tuesday morning to her kids running into her bedroom yelling "Mommy, Mommy there's water in the basement."

She was expecting a small puddle around the drain, but when she walked down the stairs of her home on Buckingham Drive she was confronted by toys and boxes full of belongings floating around in at least 15 cm of murky rainwater.

"It was everywhere," she said.

Windsor's 311 call centre has received 22 reports of flooding following a record-breaking rainfall over the long weekend.

A total of 15.4 mm of rain was measured at the Windsor Airport on Monday, according to Environment Canada. That's enough to top the previous record for Feb. 19 of 10.9 mm, which was set in 1974.

Kids play while adults worry

For seven-year-old Ginni Winkles and her brother Dominic, four, the flooding is a fun opportunity to pull on their rubber boots to splash and slosh around in the "dirty swimming pool" that was once their basement.

Once they realized their pet rabbit Cookie was safe in her basement hutch, the pair started jumping around in the water and rescuing drowning toys from the deluge.

Nicole watched with a worried look on her face. It isn't the family's first time being flooded out.

They were previously flooded out of a basement apartment, an experience Nicole describes as "traumatic."

One of the big selling features for their new home was that it was supposed to be "waterproof," but Nicole said they don't have a sump pump or back flow valve — two flood control measures encouraged by the city that they'll be looking into once the water goes down.

• Where to call if your basement is flooded

In the meantime, the Winkles have put in calls to their home insurance provider and are waiting to hear how much assistance they'll qualify for.

"It's a $2,000 deductible and I'm not sure where we're going to come up for the money for that … things have been extremely tight lately, but we kind of have no choice," said Nicole. "This is going to be really tough for us for the next few weeks to try and get this under control."

Essex region on flood watch

Environment Canada issued a rainfall warning for Windsor-Essex and Chatham-Kent Tuesday morning, as 25 to 50 mm of rain is expected to fall on the area between Monday and Wednesday. That warning ended at 5:00 p.m. Tuesday.

• Rainfall weather alert in effect for Windsor-Essex, ERCA issues flood watch

A flood watch was also issued by the Essex Region Conservation Authority, which warned the semi-frozen ground is saturated by unseasonably high temperatures, melting snow and rain.