Toronto is still responding to the thousands of service requests in the wake of the “100-year storm,” marking the largest storm-response the city says it has ever seen. In an update on Tuesday, the City of Toronto said it received nearly 5,700 storm-related service requests regarding damage from the torrential rain. Of those requests, more than 3,000 are related to impacted trees, the city says. This has pushed tree cleanup into this week. “Crews (have) been working extended hours to address the most urgent public safety concerns and restore access to critical infrastructure,” city officials wrote. “This work is prioritized with critical infrastructure and roads being top priority.” Last Wednesday’s walloping storm brought destructive winds and ping pong sized hail, knocking out power for thousands of homes across Toronto and flooding major roadways like the Don Valley Parkway. Some areas in the GTA saw more than 100 millimetres of rainfall, like Vaughan, Scarborough and North York. As of Tuesday, city officials said it has finished more than 1,000 service requests, including fully clearing expressways and arterial roads. The city says there is still work being done on removing road blockages on collectors and local roads. Toronto says it has also been supporting emergency response and critical infrastructure partners, like Toronto Hydro and the Toronto Transit Commission, so service can return to normal. The city says it has taken extra measures over the last week to tackle this added work, including extending shifts of specialized urban forestry crews and deploying more skilled surge capacity contractor crews to accelerate tree maintenance cleanup. It is unclear at this time when the city will finish this work.
