A deluge of rain in late August 2017 is still fresh in the mind of City Engineer Mark Winterton a year later.
"August 29th is certainly a day that will remain in my memory for forever," says Winterton.
Mayor Drew Dilkens called it the city's single largest flooding event in history at a news conference in the following days with nearly 3,800 homes flooded — a number that would later reach 6,000.
Beginning the night of August 28, 2017 and continuing throughout the next day on August 29, the Windsor-Riverside area was hit with 170mm (7 in) of rain while 290mm (11 in) was recorded in neighbouring LaSalle.
A map showing reported flooded properties from August storm (Photo courtesy of www.citywindsor.ca)
Winterton says the city has since taken action with an accelerated sewer master plan, a backwater valve subsidy program and an $84-million disaster mitigation application to the province.
"We hope we don't see that type of thing again but, we will see major storms and we will see basement flooding so, we're trying to do a lot of things that we can," says Winterton.
He adds downspout disconnections are strongly recommended today but, may become a mandatory measure in the near future as part of the city's flooding response strategy.
Winterton says the flooding a year ago forced the city to re-arrange its infrastructure plans.
"Many of the things were in the plans but, we greatly accelerated all of these things and we certainly have a greater focus on what it is we're trying to do," says Winterton.
Windsor-Essex flooding — Aug. 29, 2017 (Submitted photo)
Winterton says while the city is committing millions of dollars to the issue, that alone won't be enough.
"We have climate change, we have a lot of things that put the city at risk and we will want to work with the community, with the individuals — they have to continue to work on their own properties, on their own basements, to help prevent basement flooding."
The flooding event in August 2017 followed a heavy downpour in September 2016 that saw more than 1,600 homes flooded across Windsor and Tecumseh as 220mm (8.6 in) of rain fell in a 12 hour period