The Essex Regional Conservation Authority made a stop in Amherstburg Monday night to let council know how real the threat of flooding is with high water levels in Lake Erie.
Something ERCA's Tim Byrne plans on doing in every affected municipality in Essex County. Amherstburg Fire Chief Bruce Montone extended the invitation to Byrne to paint a complete picture of the threat.
The town's already started daily monitoring, created a volunteer registry to respond, installed prevention measures to protect infrastructure and stockpiled thousands of sandbags as part of its master plan. Byrne told council if Lake Erie wants to come into town, it's coming whether they like it or not, so the focus has to be on response.
"That's why we have the sandbag program in place, that's why we've taken measures to protect our infrastructure. If that is damaged by such an event like that it's going to cost significant dollars to replace," says Montone.
According to Byrne sandbags work to divert water, they're not meant to not keep it out.
With some flood plain simulations showing possibility 4-ft of water in some locations, creating dikes around homes with sandbags is what Byrne dryly described as a, "futile exercise."
Montone agrees and the town wants residents to contact authorities to let them know if they're abandoning their home so emergency responders don't risk their safety looking for people who aren't in danger.
"If it gets to the extreme levels that you saw in Tim's presentation, then really, the option residents have is simple, leave." he says. "In terms of knowing when they're gone, knowing when they'll return, insuring that they have some place to go so that if we need to look at setting up ... an evacuation centre we're going to know that in advanced."
With water levels so high it's the worst case scenario ERCA uses to map flooding Byrne says, it's not a matter of if, but when.