Shock, grief and a city on the edge as St. Catharines, Ont., deals with massive flooding
Residents of St. Catharines, Ontario, are facing a state of emergency following back-to-back severe flooding events. The storms have caused significant property damage and emotional distress, with local officials also experiencing personal losses.
Why it matters
This highlights the increasing frequency of extreme weather events and the strain they place on municipal infrastructure and emergency response systems.
Jennifer Chrysler-Loney, her husband and her 12-year-old son were dealing with water pouring into their south St. Catharines, Ont., home from a storm pounding the area when a tornado warning lit up their phones .
Chrysler-Loney and her son grabbed the family dog, batteries, chargers and flashlights, intending to rush to the basement for shelter, when she looked out the bay window in their kitchen overlooking the towering Niagara Escarpment her home backs on to.
"The floor of the escarpment was flattening," she told CBC News. "It was like a tsunami coming down the escarpment. It was barrelling towards our house."
They desperately tried to hold back the floodwaters that filled the window well and poured into the house, dumping buckets of water into sinks.
But the force of the massive wall of water was too much.
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