Glencoe area faces big bill for cleanup, repairs following rain storm

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A once-in-a-lifetime storm that pounded the Glencoe area with more than 130 millimetres of rain has left the municipality with a costly legacy, its mayor says.

The cost to clean up from flooding and repair damaged roads will add up to $400,000 to $500,000, a hefty expense for the 5,800 residents of Southwest Middlesex, said Mayor Allen Mayhew, whose basement was among the many that flooded during the storm.

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“We need financial assistance,” he said. “Funding over the years for infrastructure has decreased at a time when we need it desperately.”

Mayhew said no municipal infrastructure can withstand the amount of rain his received during Wednesday’s storm. Environment Canada recorded 134 mm of rainfall in the Glencoe area from Wednesday evening to 8 a.m. Thursday in what one meteorologist described as a one-in-100-years storm.

The municipality used vacuum trucks to pump out sewage for 36 hours straight, Mayhew said, adding the region’s swimming pool also was contaminated and is now closed for repairs.

“The water volume was so much it mixed in with sanitary system and the pumps couldn’t keep up to it,” he said.  Without the vacuum trucks, “we would have sewage in the streets and up the manhole covers on our roads. We cannot have that.”

Southwest Middlesex’s 800 kilometres of roads were flooded and many gravel roads will have to be overhauled and regraded, Mayhew said.

“We have no choice; we have to have safe roads to drive on.”

Public works staffed returned from vacation to help with emergency measures, Mayhew said.

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The storm will be a huge burden on taxpayers in the rural municipality southwest of London, he said.

“Every $100,000 I spend puts our taxes up one per cent.”

Southwest Middlesex has appealed to Monte McNaughton, a Progressive Conservative MPP whose riding includes the municipality, Mayhew said. McNaughton is also a cabinet minister in Premier Doug Ford’s government.

“We hope to have a positive reply,” Mayhew said.

Meanwhile Dundonald Road north of Glencoe still is closed at the site of a sinkhole caused by flooding in the rare storm where a transport driver died when his rig crashed into it. The hole is 6.5 metres wide and 3.5 metres deep.

“The water is still receding and we are still estimating several weeks before repairs are completed,” said Chris Traini, deputy chief administrator of the County of Middlesex.

The rainstorm is also a massive blow to farms in the region, Mayhew said.

“There will be some substantial crop loss for our agricultural community, particularly in soybeans,” he said.

Don Crawford, who farms about 800 hectares (2,000 acres) growing soybeans, corn and hay in Southwest Middlesex, said it will be weeks before he can evaluate the extent of the damage.

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“It’s hard to tell because you can’t see where the water is or how much you’ve got lying in your fields,” he said. “It’ll be a couple weeks before you can tell if the soybeans and corn will survive or die right on the spot.”

If soybeans produce low yields, farmers will have to rely on crop insurance “that pulls you below cost of production,” Crawford said.

“That’s a major problem.”

-With files from Calvi Leon

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