Toronto Star
It was commuter chaos on Tuesday afternoon and evening as major public transit hubs and highways were closed due to flooding from excessive rain.
All southbound lanes of the DVP remained closed at Bayview/Bloor due to flooding. Northbound DVP at Dundas Street East was also closed.
At Union Station, security guards and TTC workers were preventing commuters from accessing the subway platform due to the flooding, advising them to walk to the nearest stations — St. Andrew or King — instead. Passengers rerouted to King Station from Union were having trouble getting down to the platform due to the large crowds.
The TTC and Metrolinx said after 8 p.m. that Union Station is now operating at normal levels with some residual delays of about 20 to 30 minutes for GO Train services.
Nav Kaur was supposed to catch her GO Train to Vaughan earlier this afternoon, but when she got to the platform it never came.
“I came down here and spoke to a representative. They didn’t even know what was going on.”
Toronto saw roughly 98 mm of rain on Tuesday, with more showers expected, the fifth wettest day on record (tracking since 1938), Environment Canada reported after 5 p.m.
Toronto Pearson normally receives 74 mm throughout all of the month of July “we’ve received more than a month’s worth in a day,” Environment Canada meteorologist Trudy Kidd said.
Environment Canada issued a new severe thunderstorm watch for a large swath of southwestern Ontario, west of the GTA, shortly after 4:30 p.m. The federal agency warned of rainfall approaching 30 mm and strong winds gusting to 90 km/h, lasting from this afternoon and into the evening.
Toronto Fire processed nearly 1,700 calls for service and dispatched to almost 500 incidents between 6 a.m. and 3 p.m. today. With more than 50 elevator rescue calls, more than 50 water calls and over 20 people rescued from cars and buildings as a result of the significant rain, officials posted on X on Tuesday evening.
Earlier, drivers had to be rescued from their stranded vehicles as Toronto streets and major highways saw significant flooding on Tuesday.
After 25 years as a transport driver, Jim McCauley thought he’d seen it all. Thunderstorms, snowstorms, bad drivers. You name it.
But that all changed Tuesday after McCauley found himself stranded on the Don Valley Parkway for hours due to flooding from the Don River.
His truck got stuck while heading northbound on the DVP from the Gardiner. He said police officers tried to get him to reverse, but he wasn’t taking any chances with a vehicle as big as his.
“They wanted to get everybody off the highway, but with us being truck drivers, we can’t just do a U-turn on the Don Valley,” McCauley said. “There isn’t enough room, and if we’re loaded heavy, tires will pop off.”
McCauley said he got out of his vehicle and stood with other stranded drivers, watching as abandoned cars floated by in the water and collided.
“The water, on some cars, was almost up to the roof,” he said. He estimated the levels rose about six inches above the tires on his truck.
Eventually, McCauley was given the green light to return to his truck. But even then, he said he only managed to drive about 300 feet over within another two hours.
“It was a little scary at times. My truck started spitting and sputtering when I was going through the deep, deep water.”
When he pulled over later, he saw tree branches, twigs, grass, and plastic from the Don River lodged in the front of his truck.
Reflecting on his experience after the ordeal, McCauley said he was relieved to finally be back at the truck yard.
“I’m going to go home and have a beverage. Maybe two,” he chuckled.
Toronto fire “island” rescue
A person had to be rescued from an “island” created by fast flowing and elevated waters from todays rainfall in Etobicoke, Toronto fire said.
Fire services received a report at around 5:30 p.m about a person stranded in the water at Etobicoke Creek near Sherway Gardens.
The crews arrived and located a person that was on a patch of land that had been isolated from the mainland due to rising water.
Toronto Fire said the person did not want any medical aid at the time of emergency services arrival.
Crews reportedly stayed on scene to try and figure out how to rescue the person, as they were not able to go directly to them.
With the water levels rising and speed increasing, it was determined that a helicopter would be needed for the rescue, Toronto fire said.
A Canadian Armed Forces helicopter then arrived at around 8:45 p.m., where the person was lifted from the island and brought to a Peel paramedics ambulance for assessment.