Bowmanville residents 'completely overwhelmed' by relentless flooding

Residents of a lakeside community in Bowmanville, Ont. are “completely overwhelmed” by relentless flooding after waves pummeled the shoreline of the Cedar Crest Beach community, breaching the street.

Another wave of flooding battered Cedar Crest Beach area in the municipality of Clarington on Thursday as Lake Ontario reached historic highs due to heavy rains.

“We are completely overwhelmed,” said Michelle Lomas whose backyard has been completely overrun by lake water. “We haven’t had a chance to recover from the flood on Sunday.”

Lomas’ house is one of around 40 homes affected by Lake Ontario’s record high levels, thanks to soggy spring conditions.

It has risen 75 centimetres above average today, according to authorities. The International Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River Board told CP24 this is “well about normal.”

Lomas wasn’t taking any chances on Thursday, doing what she can to keep water out, including running several small pumps to remove hundreds of litres of water.

“I’ve got four pumps going and they aren’t doing anything,” she told CTV News Toronto.

Lomas had water in her house earlier this month and is hoping to prevent it from happening again.

“Unlike before, it’s more critical today than it ever has been,” Clarington Deputy Fire Chief Tim Calhoun said.

Sandbag barriers have been erected around homes as high winds and heavy rains pound the community. This poses the biggest threat to properties, Calhoun added.

“We’re deploying sandbags everywhere,” he said. “We brought in extra pumps and we pulled out all the stops, all our resources that we have.

“For some of the properties it is actually futile at this point.”

Homeowner Sarah Delicate says her backyard is completely gone after the rock wall that protected much of her property was overtaken by the water.

“We woke up at two o’clock this morning to the waves hitting the second floor, and we’ve been at it ever since,” she said.

This is the end result of erosion and swelling water levels.

“We didn’t build our house too close to the lake,” she added. “We used to have mass amounts of property, like 60, 70, 80-feet for some people.”

So far one home has been evacuated.

“It’s a nerve-wracking thing to keep thinking that this is not going to get any better anytime soon,” said another resident, Judith Kreps-Hawkins.

Two teams from the Ministry of Natural Resources are set to arrive Friday morning to assist Bowmanville officials and residents with sandbagging efforts, delivering them to homes in need.